Red Horizon
by Apotheosis.Scribere
Summary: Fate intervenes and a girl is left to survive the harsh realities of the world. She was meant for greatness, that was a given, but sometimes greatness is given with a price. Sakura must decide where her loyalties lay, in the past or in a cold dark future.
1. Prologue

PART 1: THE SECRETS THAT HID ME

Prologue: A New Day

Tall building loomed over them, a young girl tilted her head trying to see the tops of them. She was greeted by the cold wet drops of the sky above, causing her to blink her eyes close.

Cold. So very cold.

It wasn't just the rain, it was the entire city. Ever since she had approached the city, she gripped her guide's hand a little tighter then she meant. Sadness dwelled in the dark alleys and anger seethed below.

The whole city was at an unrest.

With her eyes closed, flashes of pink and yellow crossed her mind.

 _We will be home soon._

Green eyes opened and she faced forward. The man leading her stopped.

"We are here kiddo."

He was very friendly, in a reserved way. The whole trip he never enacted much of a conversation with her, but always made sure she was as comfortable as possible with a travelling ninja. His light hair was hidden behind a dark bandana and he had a few scars and scratches on his face and what he showed on his arms. He wasn't necessarily handsome, but he did have a nice smile with a set of pearly white teeth.

He brought his burly fist up, giving the metal door three loud knocks that vibrated through the whole structure.

It seemed as if it was a huge bunker, miniaturized against the towering gothic buildings that filled Amegakure.

A couple minutes later they stood under a flickering street light until the large door screeched open.

"What brings you here so early?" The voice was gruff, yet undeniably female. She was tall and slender, with short cropped hair, almost shaved clean off, and hard eyes that looked black with the dim lighting. She dressed in standard shinobi pants and boots, but had a loose grey shirt on, hiding any feminine qualities that may have graced her.

"New recruit?" The man said hopefully, giving the lady a sheepish smile. She only glared at him, before glancing at the girl beside him.

"You need to toughen up Yuuto-san. I cannot take all the strays you find on missions, soon I will have to many mouths that cannot be feed."

The man gulped a bit and the young girl next to him looked up at him, afraid that she was going to be kicked out onto the streets.

"Ne, Kyou-san, I know of my faults. However this girl's town was so small they did not even have a proper orphanage, not even a proper village really. It was in the eastern farmlands, her residence was robbed and well- well now we are here."

Kyou grunted as if she didn't care for the sob story. She looked at the girl with distaste, kneeling down to the ground to poke and prod the girl's meatless arms and belly.

"Do you know what this establishment is?" She questioned, her cold eyes looking into the girls wide green ones.

"A-An orphanage?" The girl stuttered out, her words barely heard over the rain. The woman scoffed.

"You wish. Here you must pay back your stay and even more so. You will pledge your life to this village and be bound by oath to be its servant. You will live for this village, you will kill for this village, and you will die for this village. You will do everything this village asks for without hesitation. If there is hesitation, you will disappear from this village. We do not keep scum around to litter up the village streets. Everyone here contributes somehow, and you will make the greatest sacrifices to contribute."

Her dark tone added so much more depth to her speech. The girl shivered, if it was from the cold or from what Kyou said, she did not know.

"Now, girl, is this the life you want for yourself?"

What else was there if not this life?

The girl took a second, clenching her fist, before nodding fiercely.

"Yes."

Kyou looked her dead in the eye, humming softly.

"What is you name girl?"

"Sakura Har-"

"Ah! No last names. You are an orphan, you have no family, not where you were from and definitely not here."

Wide green eyes blinked a few times at the reprimand. Her last name was all she had of her past life, all she could keep from what was taken from her, something that gave her a shred of identity.

Yet here, in this haunted place where the clouds never parted, she was to drop it.

Did she have a choice? She had to survive.

This was the way to survive.

"Okay." Her small voice broke out finally. Kyou stood up, turning towards the large metal door.

"You will call me Kyou-sensei from now on. Follow me and I will show you were you will be staying."

Sakura went to follow her, then turned around to the man who had brought her here in the first place. He seemed a little uncomfortable, but used to how harsh Kyou could be.

"Goodbye, Sakura-chan. Who knows, maybe we will see each other sooner than you think."

He smiled lightly, but it did not reach his eyes.

"Thank you, Yuuto-san, you have helped me in more ways than one." She gave a quick bow, her long pink hair falling over her shoulder. Yuuto gave a small laugh, before patting her on the shoulder.

"Take care, kiddo."

With that, he walked away, throwing one more wave back. Sakura smiled lightly, what a nice man. She turned around, where Kyou did not look so amused.

"Come on."

With that, she entered the metal bunker, the heavy metal door slamming shut behind her, sealing her fate.

Sakura did not know what to make of this new road life had choose for her, but she knew this was the way to survive and become stronger. It must be the only way.

* * *

Minutes passed by, the street echoing the steady downpour of rain. A cloaked figure walked over and took cover under the overhang. Tan, nimble fingers reached up, revealing a small, insignificant origami angel. With a small wire attached to it allowed the cloaked to hang it on one of the bars that structured the over hang.

Some might think it was sweet, a guardian angel to watch over the children attempting to make a life for themselves. However, the person knew better, this was no sign of goodwill, this was a sign of a revolution. Soon everything shall be uprooted, and a new age shall began.

* * *

 _It is finally here! A reboot of The Girl in Red and Black! It has gone through major changes, so many I probably shouldn't even refer it to that previous monstrosity._

 _This will be definitely more developed in a character way and plot way, and in the future it might divert from the manga/series because of the changes._

 _Hope you enjoy it!_

 _I do not own Naruto_

 _-Apotheosis_


	2. Baby Steps

Chapter 1: Baby steps

"Age?"

"8 years old."

A pen scratched on parchment. The man was older, sitting on his creaky chair as he wrote a few things down, glancing at her on a few occasions.

After Kyou had shown her where she would be staying, well the door that lead to the sleeping area, she brought her to the bunkers physician who had been reading a few documents. Since everyone was in class and Kyou didn't want to disrupt the students, she took Sakura to get examined by their physician and get her fitted in a couple outfits.

The physician Tomohiro was a tall man, a bit older than Kyou it seemed. He had his head completely bald, and a pair of glasses that rested on the bridge of his nose.

So here she was, getting her first physical ever. Beforehand, she had never even stepped into a clinic. It was clean, yet had a metallic and stuffy smell that made her nose crinkle up every so often.

"Are you a sickly child?"

"No."

"Any pains or health issues I should know about?"

"No."

"Allergies?"

"Nope." She popped the p, trying to entertain herself. Tomohiro seemed just as bored with this as she was.

"Past injuries?"

Sakura was about to say her usual answer, until a memory flashed through her mind.

 _Red-hot pain, her leg dragging as she crawled._

"Yes. I broke my legs." She sounded out quietly, rubbing her thigh with her hand, remembering where the pain was.

"How did you receive it and was it healed properly?"

 _Irritated eyes, fast hands. A figure of blue standing in the background._

 _Cold amber eyes. Evaluating the situation. Evaluating her worth._

"I fell into my family- my old farms well. Yes a medic was passing by and healed it correctly. It hasn't hurt or been a bother since."

"I see." More scratching while Sakura pulled at her hair, trying to rid the memories that filled her brain.

"Alright, you seem to be a healthy little girl, if just a little hungry." The doctor said in a disinterested tone, looking over his notes.

"We are almost done, the only thing I have to cut your hair."

Sakura's eyes widened at his dismissive tone, her hands immediately combing through her long hair.

 _Sakura-chan, you are going to have such beautiful long hair at this rate._

A ghost of a memory combing through her hair, once again flashes of pink and yellow.

Yet she had to give everything up to survive. She had to survive.

"O-Okay."

"Good, I thought you might be a little fussier over it." With that he gestured to her to stay where she was and got a pair of scissors out. Sakura clamped her hands together, trying not to pull her hair away as he grabbed a big chunk of it.

"Why do you have to cut my hair?" Her voice turned into a squeak as the first of her long tresses fell over her shoulder.

"There's a lot of kids in this place, and even though we all pitch in on cleaning, having lice is a problem. Especially when you have over 30 kids packed together like sardines."

Accepting his explanation with a small 'oh' as more of her hair fell down onto her lap and the floor around her.

She twiddled a few pieces of it in her hand, frowning at the memories the color brought to her.

"Alright, all done." The physician's deep voice called out as he stepped towards the door.

"I'm going to go grab some clothes and books for you to read until classes are over. I will be back shortly."

With that the door closed and Sakura was left alone, going over to a metal cabinet and looking at her distorted mirror-self. Her once long hair was now choppy and short, not even an inch long. She sighed, eyeing it with a bit of vain sadness while she ran her hands through it.

This would be her life now.

* * *

Another restaurant had officially banned him, great. Even though everything in Konoha was beautiful and blooming for springtime, he was left with a grumbling stomach.

It just wasn't fair. His lower lip stuck out as he walked the road of a mostly deserted neighborhood. With the Spring Festival going on, he was able to walk in nicer neighborhoods without being worried about if someone was going to jump him or something.

He sniffed, rubbing his nose with his arm. He really didn't like this time of the year. Yeah it was beautiful blah blah blah, but school was out so where did that leave him?

It was true, Naruto actually missed school. Yeah he was frequently late or skipping it, but when he skipped, he usually did it with Kiba, Shikamaru and Chouji. They weren't the best of friends, and they never hung out outside of class. Kiba frequently called him 'annoying' and Shikamaru called him 'troublesome', but at least they stayed in his vicinity without looking at him with disgust.

Now, however, they were with their families and their parents wouldn't like their children to be seen with him.

It was their fault he was in this hungry situation anyways. In a ruse to show off to them, he spent most of his allowance to by the newest manga addition to Ninja Hero's, along with the action figure of the main hero Tsuyoi. Yesterday he ran out of the last of his instant ramen, which left him trying to scavenge around for edible food behind restaurants.

Once found out, he was driven off of course. One owner even smacked him. The thought made him rub his cheek.

Then his eyes caught a shiny green apple, hanging innocently from a tree branch. It was still small, probably not the sweetest thing on earth. That was okay, he never had much of a sweet tooth anyways. His stomach growled at the sight and he could feel his mouth watering.

He hadn't eaten since yesterday afternoon, it was already evening time now. Trying to be as subtle as the blonde boy could, he creeped up to the unoriginal white picket fence, glancing up at the small homes porch. One rocking chair sat, slightly moving with the wind, but other than that, there was nobody.

Scrambling, he crossed the fence and climbed up the tree, shoving the small apples in his mouth.

He was right, they were sour and hard, but his stomach rumbled happily with the contents. A little guilt started up, but he was able to ignore it for the time-being, he would try and not eat them all.

"Those apples are supposed to be red for the summer, boy."

A somewhat cranky voice bit out. Naruto let out a muffled shout, falling from his place in the tree to the hard ground. He choked a bit, but made himself swallow the rest of the apple, if he was going to get beat, might as well make it worth it.

An unamused chuckle left the older lady, as Naruto stared at her with wide eyes. She was bent down, gardening below a blooming sakura tree. He was too focused on the house he didn't see her crouched behind the bushes. She was dressed in what he supposed was regular gardening clothes, some slightly worn tan pants and a traditional long sleeve qipao shirt, along with a large brimmed hat that protected her pale skin from the bright sun.

Her white hair was long and brittle, pulled back into a large low bun, while her bright green eyes looked over at him with a stern expression.

"Obaa-chan-"what was he going to say? Apologize for eating some of her apples, only to be beat on the head with a stick? Should he even try to explain himself? Most people won't listen to his reasoning anyways.

"Why are you eating sour apples, boy?" she asked, interrupting any nonsense that would have left his mouth. Naruto, still laying on the ground, had lifted himself up on his elbows to look at her.

"I was hungry- and I don't have money for food." He answered honestly, he was never one to be subtle. The lady looked at him, her eyes flashing with recognition. Here it comes, she recognized him as the outcast and will through him a side like everyone else.

A tense moment passed and Naruto waited for the tongue lashing. It never came however. The woman went back to gardening, minding her own business.

Naruto stared at her for a minute, before getting up and dusting himself off. That was odd, she didn't look angry at his presence. He thought maybe about reaching out to her, but pulled back. Better not push his luck.

He was about to leave the fenced yard, but her weary voice stopped him.

"You are going to let an old lady do all this work by herself? Tsk, young men these days."

Naruto looked at her with wide blue eyes, surprised at her comment. Unsure, he walked over to her.

"Come on boy, if you help me plant all of these by nightfall, I will treat you to some dinner."

That was the decision maker, Naruto immediately plopped down, grabbing a tool of his own and trying to copy her movements.

It was silent for two minutes top, before Naruto started blurting out random things from school, which turned into what things he liked, what he disliked and so on. The woman listened silently, melancholy shining in her eyes as her thin lips let out the smallest smiles.

* * *

Classes were long, being from 8 in the morning to 6 at night, with a sort of recess in between for 30 minutes.

The classes covered everything from taijutsu to chakra theory, and Sakura took as many notes as she could in her notebook that was given to her.

Another classmate, Taro, had told her the reason they had such long class days and it was packed with everything was because each kid in here had a limit of two years to prove if they were capable or not. Sakura did not want to be kicked out, that was the last thing she wanted.

He had already been there a year and a half, yet he still was all casual smiles and thumbs up. He was quite nice, a little too friendly at times, but he showed her the empty bunk, which was part of his. The boy even let her have the top bunk, saying the light of the skylight annoyed him.

The first day was long, but Sakura surprisingly enjoyed the new knowledge bestowed to her. Her mind seemed to connect things a lot easier then she realized before, math problems were simple for her and chakra theory was something she could grasp and understand.

It was great, having her mind pushed and molded into even more knowledge. However, when it came to taijutsu, she was terrible.

Her limbs were already weak and skinny, and as she went through katas she heard a few kids snicker at her, she looked like a flailing goose rather than a strong tree. She still pushed herself, even with the small remarks and prodding of other students.

At the end of the day, after they had been fed dinner and sent to their bunkbeds to have a couple hours of free-time, Sakura was pulled aside by Kyou.

She took her to a room that she took a small group in everyday, rotating the group so everyone had the chance to have some one on one practice with her. Taro said it was mostly working on ninjutsu moves and use of chakra.

"You have never used chakra, have you?"

"No sensei."

"Alright, I'm going to give you a small exercise. I don't expect you to get it right away, however we need to know if you can access chakra."

Sakura gave a small nod, and Kyou crouched down into a position for meditating. She moved her hand, beckoning Sakura to sit down.

"Now, I want you to sit down and breath. You must feel out your chakra, feel it moving inside of you. Follow it, summon it to your hands, your feet, wherever. Just try to find your chakra."

Sakura nodded, their other Sensei, a nice younger lady called Mariko, though she insisted on being called Mari-sensei had already talked about chakra at length in class. She was a very intelligent and witty woman, and her classes were very interesting. As the young girl sat down and closed her eyes, she thought about what Mari-sensei had told the class. Chakra was like blood in our veins, everyone had chakra, though some could use it and some could not. Those with stronger reserves of chakra usually become ninjas. The whole purpose of a ninja, besides serving their village, was to hone in on their chakra.

She breathed in, and out, slowly. The silence was enough for her to hear her heartbeat in her ears. Deeper than just blood, however was something else swirling around, almost like fire under her skin.

She lost track as time as she tried to connect with the energy she felt. The minutes ticked by and she finally felt a small tingle in her hand. Warm almost. She tried to mentally grab the warm spot, spreading it through her hand.

She let it hover there for a minute, before concentrating on her other hand, again the warm tingles began.

She began a rotation, right hand, left hand, left foot, right foot. Round the sensation went, flowing throughout her body until she became use to the feeling.

Soon it was in all four of her appendages at the same time.

She finally opened her eyes, surprised to find her hands glowing a bright blue. She assumed her feet were also doing the same in her shoes.

"Good. Now, get up." Kyou was already standing up, and Sakura slowly got up, her legs wobbly from sitting so long.

"Watch me."

Kyou walked to the left wall, one clear of training dummies and scrolls bigger than Sakura herself. Then she did something that Sakura had never seen before.

She walked up the wall, straight up it in a way her body was horizontal with the ground. Kyou kept walking until she was standing on the ceiling, looking down at Sakura.

"I don't expect you to get this far, but I want you to try and plant your feet on the wall using only chakra, got it?"

She didn't really get it, but she was willing to try it. Facing the wall, she scrunched her eyes closed as she tried to focus in her chakra again. Kyou dropped silently behind her, approaching her. Sakura froze as Kyou grabbed Sakura's hands in her larger calloused ones.

"Relax, you must try not to try so hard, you will end up losing your flow of chakra." With that, she fixed Sakura's fingers into a hand seal she recognized Mari-sensei taught about.

"This will help you channel your chakra easily, not focus your chakra into your feet. When you go to climb the wall, you want imagine as if your chakra is a grip."

Sakura nodded and Kyou let go of her hands and stepped back. Kyou was right, it was much easier to flow chakra through her boy using the hand seal. Once again chakra pooled to her feet.

"Go."

With Kyou's signal, Sakura took a few steps towards the wall, opening her eyes. She breathed in deeply and placed her right foot flat on the wall. She imagined it gripping the wall like Kyou had said. Once she had felt like she had gotten it, she brought up her left foot and placed it next to her right foot, trying not to think about how her foot was actually sticking!

In an awkward squatting position, she stood horizontal with the floor, nothing supporting her up but the chakra in her feet.

"Huh."

Kyou remarked behind her. Sakura tried to keep her breathing even, tried to not think about how her feet were sticking.

"Try taking a step."

Her sensei's voice called from behind her, a little closer than before. Sakura pooled more chakra into her left foot while loosening her grip on her right. Her left foot slipped a little and Sakura's eyes widened, but she managed to catch herself by placed her right foot above.

Once again having somewhat of a wobbly balance, she moved her left foot, making sure her right foot had enough chakra to support her body.

"Again."

She took another step, slowly and looking very much a crab walking up the wall. After two more steps, her chakra began to flicker out of her feet causing her to fall to the ground.

She let out a small yelp, but Kyou's arms had caught her easily. Sakura looked at her sensei with a worried expression etched in her face.

"I-I'm sorry! I don't know what happened- my cha-chakra just left my feet!"

Kyou hushed her, setting the girl on her feet, only to have Sakura collapse and Kyou catch her again. Her energy felt depleted and her body felt heavy. Tears welled up in the young girls eyes.

"I'm s-so sorry sensei, I-I don't know-"

"Sakura, you're fine." Kyou said sternly, gaining the gaze of watered up eyes.

"You simply ran out of chakra, you've never used chakra before, at least not a concentrated amount so it's very easy to deplete your usable chakra at this time. You did well, most beginners can barely get one foot to stick on the first try."

Kyou explained as the girl regained her balance, sniffing lightly trying to keep composed.

"So I did alright?"

Her sensei nodded.

"I would suggest you use your free time to practice this exercise, it is a fast way to grow your chakra resources. Not tonight however, you have done enough for today and you need rest." She may have said it as a suggestion, but Sakura took it as an order, and she nodded in agreement.

"Go get cleaned up and get to bed."

With the dismissal, Sakura bowed to her sensei and left the room.


	3. Friendly Meetings

The small blonde child gobbled the food in front of him. He never had a home-cooked meal before, and it was amazing. It was a simple beef stir-fry, but it was delicious to him, even if it wasn't ramen.

A throat cleared and he looked up, food dropping from his mouth onto his lap.

The old lady with piercing green eyes stared at him.

"If you are going to eat at my table, you must do it like you are a proper human being."

Naruto swallowed, chuckling nervously. The lady was nice, she was giving him a proper meal and someone to talk to, even if it was one-sided. However he found out she was very stern and proper, correcting him when he talked in slang and chiding him whenever he slouched.

He probably should be annoyed at it, but for some reason he liked having someone breathing down his back. Maybe that's why he always liked making Iruka angry to the point his face visibly got bigger.

Sitting up a bit straighter, he tried to slow down with his eating, trying to take three chews before starting on the next one. She seemed satisfied and went on to eating her own food.

"What's your name Obaa-chan?" Naruto asked after swallowing his food.

"My name is Kohaku Chie," as she said her name, you could see the pride in her eyes. It quickly diminished though.

"Oh, I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" He said happily, before frowning and scrunching up his eyebrows.

"You know who I am right? No one likes me, I'm an outcast."

Chie hummed.

"Yes I know."

"Why don't you hate me?"

To Naruto's surprise, she shrugged.

"When I saw you, I thought maybe I should kick you out. However, your age coincidently is around my granddaughters age. Maybe I'm growing senile."

Naruto cracked a grin, "You have a granddaughter? Is she cute? Does she go to the ninja academy?"

Another stern glare shut him up.

"I'm afraid you wouldn't know her. She went missing a few years ago." Her eyes became distant as she sipped on her tea. Naruto mouth formed an 'oh' and looked down, a heavy silence baring down. He never had to comfort people, he assumed he wasn't good at it. Although the older lady didn't show it, he could tell in her eyes she was very sad.

Twiddling his fingers as he fought for something to say, he end up standing up and slamming his hand on the table, making both of their plates shudder.

"She's missing? Well when I'm a ninja, I'll find her! I'm going to be Hokage one day, so I need to make sure to make all the villagers happy, right? So this is my first promise as future Hokage. I will find you granddaughter!"

He all but shouted out. Chie stared at him in surprise, it was probably the softest expression he had seen from her the whole evening.

It didn't last, she pursed her lips together, tapping her finger on her cup of tea.

"The table is no place for loudness or rough-housing, sit down."

Naruto's face flushed in embarrassment as he did as told.

"I mean it, ya' know."

A small smile formed on the older ladies lips.

"You were decent help today. Do you have the rest of the week off?"

Blue eyes looked up her, surprised.

"U-Uh. Yeah, school doesn't start until next week."

She closed her eyes and nodded, as if affirming something.

"Good, come here 8 in the morning, sharp. I want to finish my garden before summer comes. Your payment will be three meals a day."

Chie maybe a stern, sometimes cold-shouldered lady, but Naruto was quickly finding out that was more an act then anything.

* * *

Taro introduced Sakura to the kids on the bunkbeds next to them. To the right were twin girls, about 12 years old, same as Taro. Miki and Kin were their names and Tora whispered to her they were both nosey and bit gossipy. They sat on the top bunk together, holding their worn notebooks in their laps, going through each other's notes. They greeted Sakura curtly and went back to their studying. To the left of them was a younger girl named Aki, she was only 6 years old, and was quite talkative to Sakura, telling her it was rare to have kids younger than 10 here since Kyou didn't want to waste time teaching kids reading and writing. Aki fondly told them Shig was the one who helped her keep up with the other students. Shig was Aki's bunkmate, older male around 15 years old, he grunted at Aki's comment and continued to ignore them from the bottom bunk, keeping his nose stuck in a borrowed book.

Aki talked about how she and Shig came from the same orphanage, both stranded there was babies. The orphanage had burned down when they were out with three other children and a matriarch helper doing errands for the orphanage. When they came back, a lot of the children and workers were lost, only a few of them being able to escape.

With that, Aki, Shig and two other orphans headed to this bunker after, not surprisingly, Yuuto had crossed paths of the wandering orphans and pointed them to here. No wonder Kyou was a bit annoyed at Yuuto.

After talking to Aki a bit, and her saying Sakura could join in with her and Shig for studying, Sakura went to her bunk on the top, where the twins faced towards her on their own bunk, legs hanging down.

"So where are you from?"

She guessed they were going to pry her for information, like Taro had warned her about.

"The eastern farmlands, my fam- I lived on a farm there."

"Have you ever been to a city before?" Kin asked, her wide brown eyes curious as she leaned forward. Her sister Miki had green eyes with a mole on her cheek, besides that the girls looked just alike.

Sakura shook her head, she had never been to a city, at least not that she remembered.

"We lived in a city at the border of Rain and Fire country, it actually was sunny there sometimes."

Miki commented somewhat in a bored tone, Kin was definitely the friendlier one.

"It was so green! When our mom died, we decided to become ninja since our father was never in the picture in the first place. Our village sent us here for training, which was almost a year ago. We're hoping to graduate at the end of the semester. Do you know any ninjas?"

Sakura shrugged.

"I only really knew Yuuto-san and the teachers here now."

 _Cold amber eyes stared at her, pale hands reaching out to her._

"Oh, well, I've met another ninja, she was pretty scary…" Sakura added, blinking her eyes trying to get the memory out of her head.

Miki and Kin nodded in agreement.

"Ah, they can be really scary. Just think, that will be us someday," Miki joked.

They talked a bit more, Miki and Kin filling her in on a few student she should avoid, as they tended to be the meaner bully-type.

Soon Sakura was laying in her bed, reading over her notes as five loud knocks echoed off the metal door reverberating through the room.

"That means lights out."

Tora told her from his bottom bunk. As he said that, lamps were flickered off in less than a minute. Stuffing her notebook under her pillow, she wiggled around, getting comfortable. Looking out the skylight, watching the street lamp flicker above it. The rain landing on the glass in a soothing rhythmic tone.

It wasn't long before she was fast asleep, avoiding the clasp of long pale fingers and focusing on memories of pink and yellow.

* * *

Kyou walked out, pulling out a metal case from her vest pocket. Flicking it open, she slid out a cigarette. It wasn't a habit she indulged in, but every once in a while, she allowed herself to unwind a little.

The small flame from a lighter flickered to life and she inhaled the burning sensation, the only thing that could warm her up in this cold place at imes. She leaned against the door taking cover in the small overhang, taking in a few puffs, she glanced around the street, dead as usual at this time.

Memories filled her mind as she closed her eyes. She was helping these children in ways she wished she was helped as a child. She had been so easily convinced and manipulated back when she was an orphan just like them, it made her jaw clench. Orphan turned renegade, it made her scoff. How she thought she was changing the world with a group that just like her had their family torn from them because of war.

How she masqueraded around in her official uniform, a single blood red cloud letting people who she was.

It wasn't long however she realized she was merely in a mercenary group, sometimes even assumed to be a terrorist group.

Hanzo had been right to break it up and discredit it. She had ran back home to Ame as soon as she got word that Nagato had betrayed the group and murdered not only one of the founding leaders, but a whole team of members.

When she was taken into custody, Hanzo could have killed her right there and not regret it, but he must have seen her desperation to repent, to repay him for all the unnecessary stress she caused Ame. He accepted her back, but she was always put at a distance.

It wasn't long before she thought of this idea, an idea to keep orphans off the street and keep Ame's army full. She didn't want orphans to become what she had and plenty of others had become, used and twisted for the means of others.

No, she wanted to let them have a chance to serve a cause that mattered, that actually had a purpose.

So here she was, on the outskirts of town, barely having any contact with other ninja. Yet she was content. She was serving her village along with Mari and Tomohiro. They knew this was a full-time job, they knew they probably will never have a life because of it. Yet all of them continued their work, molding these children into usable tools, just like what they had become

Smoke billowed out of her nose, heating up her lower face. This was definitely better for them.

As she opened her eyes, something white caught her eye. It was tied under the over-hang, safely out of the rain. It rocked back and forth in the wind as Kyou approached it. She quickly grabbed it, turning it around.

A delicate origami angel. It seemed to be folded so carefully and precise. Kyou narrowed her eyes, wondering where it came from.

Shrugging she let go of it, letting it continue to dance in the wind as she made her way to the door, flicking out her cigarette.

They all needed a little protection.

* * *

 _The first few chapters might be a bit boring, and sorry for all the random oc characters! I try to use canon as much as I can, but most of these oc characters are here to fill in blanks and will not be anything major in the story!_

 _At first, I wasn't going to include Naruto's dialogue in this, but then I thought of this side story and figured it would go a long with the fic as a whole. I find it also easier to read chapters like this, since it's not focusing completely on Sakura, which might get old fast, especially when she's just starting out and nothing really 'important' is happening._

 _Hope you enjoy!_

 _I do not own Naruto_

 _-Apotheosis_


	4. Setting Up the Playing Board

Days rolled on and nights were quick to past. She was excelling in classes, especially with the help of Aki and Shig, even though Shig was a grump about her joining in on the two-person study group. Her chakra control was getting better every day, she was able to make it to 20 steps and get down easily enough without being exhausted.

However, her taijutsu was lacking. Her stances were getting better but only at a slow rate. She was already behind most of the students, and with her progress she was falling even more behind.

That's why she laid awake, staring at the skylight. She needed to practice more, yet with her practicing chakra control and studying, she didn't find time or energy too. It must have been an hour already after lights out and snores ranging for loud to soft sounded through the room in a chorus.

After a few minutes of decision making, she made her choice. Crouching onto her bed, she crawled to where her bed met the wall. Easily she walked up it and onto the curved ceiling towards the skylight.

She worked at the latch, cringing as the hinges scrapped loudly, it seemed like it wasn't opened often. She was small enough she did not have to open it very much to slip out and close it quickly before any rain came in.

Sakura kept chakra pooled at her feet she moved slowly across the slippery metal roof. She knew just where she was going. Making it towards the end of the bunker was a canvas covered area.

Like most places in the city, there was not much of a 'yard'. It was more of a concrete slab covered with a canvas tarp. It had a few training dummies lined up and a drawer full of wooden kunai and shuriken, along with a lockbox of real kunai and shuriken. Only a few kids could come here at a time, and Sakura had only been able to get out here once in the few weeks she has been here.

It was the perfect place to train Taijutsu.

She jumped down under the cover of the canvas, her clothes already wet, but she didn't let that stop her.

Moving through her kata's and other muscle building exercise, she worked for a good two hours, repeating each move, implanting them to memory.

Unware that two dark eyes of her sensei watched her from the bunker windows, a small smile on her lips.

* * *

The next few months were repetitive, studying with Aki and Shig, practicing chakra control as well as learning a few beginner ninjutsu, shadow clones and substitution. Her taijutsu improved incredibly, although not her strongest point, she was caught up with the rest of the kids and was becoming skilled at it.

Sakura trained a lot more with Taro, him practically begging her to help him graduate this year. He had clung onto her as he saw her excel at chakra control and was book-smart, two areas he lacked in. It helped her out since he was bigger than her, so she had to find ways to counter his brute strength.

Mari-sensei, who was a smaller lady, gave her a few pointers and even shown her a few moves to help direct weight and chakra.

As they were having a small spar session, Kyou approached them.

"Taro, are you ready to take your exam?"

The boy in question gulped slightly, looking towards Sakura. She gave him a bright smile and thumbs up, she had really warmed up to the boy these last few months, even if he was a bit obnoxious at times.

He nodded towards their sensei, following her into the designated exam room.

Sakura smiled, looking around and wondering how many students would take the exam.

* * *

"Grandfather is not impressed with your progress in the academy."

A young woman sharpened her naginata, not even looking up at the younger boy. She had sharp black eyes, just like him, however her long blonde hair that was pulled into a loose pony tail differed from his spiky brown hair.

"So? Why should I care what that old man thinks? He already has chosen you as his favored one and his successor," though his voice held ignorance, his eyes showed that maybe he did really care.

"Well, Shigure-chan, I've heard him talking about disowning you if you don't pass this year. You are bringing disgrace to this family. You slander our grandfather, yet he was the one that built this empire. You really do not appreciate what is handed to you, do you?"

Shigure slouched forward, hiding most of his body from his sister. She was not one to lie, only one to be brutally honest. Like she was now.

"Disowned?" He murmured, his hot-head cooling off fast. It's not like he didn't appreciate his grandfather, he was considered one of the most powerful ninja in the world, even if he was becoming cynical in his old age. He pretty much single-handedly held up Amegakure's status by his own will-power.

Yes he wasn't a man Shigure necessarily wanted to anger, however, Shigure sometimes enjoyed the simple things in life. He figured with his older sister being chosen as Hanzo's heir, he would be able to simply be looked over. It seemed like that was not the case.

"Yes, disowned. You must prove yourself, aniki. I do not want to see my own kin fall, but you are creating a bad name for all of us."

Although her words were sharp, that was probably the softest she would ever be. Shigure knows she didn't hate him, well, she didn't see him as any threat to her status of Hanzo's favorite. That turned into a bit like sibling love, but that was stretching it.

"Fine. I'll graduate this year. Hell, I'll even start training with you, Sada." The girl smirked, getting up and strapping her naginata to her back.

"You might regret saying that, aniki."

He grunted, getting up and stretching a bit.

"I usually end up regretting everything I say."

She chuckled, heading to the door.

"Now, let's go have dinner with grandfather and the Grass ambassadors."

"Hai, onee-sama."

* * *

Sakura lay in her bunk, her eyes looking around to see many empty bunks. Taro graduated, along with Kin and Miki. Shig had held back for Aki. Along with the three bunkmates, 17 other students had graduated or got kicked out because it was their second year. It seemed so empty, so silent besides some muttering of other students.

It was almost lonely. Even Aki seemed quiet at this time.

Sakura took this time to lay in bed and take a rest day. It had been pretty much non-stop since she got here. Now she could perform basic jutsu, transformation, clone technique, and sealing jutsu's. Kyou had also begun showing them the body flicker technique.

For Sakura, completing these jutsu's came easily for her, usually a few days of practicing she has it perfected, sometimes she only needed a day. Many muttered she was a prodigy of some kind, she didn't really feel like that was the case. She worked hard, in her free time and even at night to accomplish and keep up with the others.

Sure somethings came more naturally to her, especially anything to do with chakra. However her stamina lacked, and although she trained to increase that, she still felt weak compared to some.

As the lights flicked out and the room filled with light snores, she climbed out of the skylight, simply sitting on the roof, letting the rain wash over her.

The rain was cold, but against her warm skin it felt almost nice, like cold kisses spread across her face.

She was in the moment she almost didn't see a small piece of paper, seemingly unaffected by the rain, land in her lap.

Almost is the key word.

* * *

"Oh Sheru-kun, I can't believe this is first day of academy. I know you will make our clan so proud!" A woman with red-hair smiled down at her son, a dazed look in her eye as she gathered her rather despondent son into a hug.

A father looked on, the same dazed look on his face as he set a small smile towards the boy.

"You will do the Yudoku name well, Sheru."

"I will do my best," the voice was apathetic, as the boy was released from his mother's grip. His honey-colored eyes stared lazily at his parents, while his shaggy red hair was left messily around his eyes.

"Good luck, Sheru-kun!" His mom called to him as he walked into the large academy building. A small smirk on his lip. He climbed the seemingly unending steps to room 357.

As he walked in, he was greeted by his new class. Sweeping his gaze over the room, there were no students that popped up in particular. However, for just a second longer, his gaze focused on Hanzo's grandson, Shigure, looking bored as ever.

Yes, everything was going to plan.


	5. Meetings and Greetings

A mousy woman sat at her desk, typing away at her station. She looked up as a tall woman stood in front of her.

"Oh, hello Kyou-san. Have you brought by your students records?"

Kyou nodded, setting down a thin files, they had only had 11 graduates this semester, compared to the large group they had last year.

"Best boy?"

"Goro." Kyou said plainly, slipping a file towards the woman. She flipped it, seeming not very impressed.

"Is he the best of the class, I assume?"

The tall woman let out a smirk. Usually best boy of class and best of the class went hand in hand. Usually. Not this time however.

"No," she commented, taking out another file and handing it to the mousy woman. The woman blinked in surprise, before taking the file tentatively going through its contents. Her eyes widened in as she went through the files.

"This girl- This girl could be a prodigy?"

Kyou smirked, shrugging.

"Possibly."

The mousy woman gaped slightly, still going through the files stats.

"I-I've got to tell Haruto-sama, they might want her under a more skilled sensei."

The taller woman hummed, turning away.

"Yes, Sakura will be a good addition to Amegakure's army. Use her wisely."

With that, Kyou left the room, while the mousy woman ran into the back to contact someone about the change in plans.

"Shigura-sama, you will placed on a team with Sheru-san." Their sensei called out. Shigure glanced at Sheru, the oddly quiet boy that had tied his forehead protector in standard position, Shigure's own was tied around his neck. He was obviously smart, if Isao-sensei's constant praise accounted for anything. Not to mention he was from one of the more prominent clans in Amegakure, which only had two still intact. The Yudoku Clan was known for their poisons, and their immunity from most poisons. Not only was he familiar, he knew they had taken in his grandfather when he was a young boy.

Even if he was not an original member of the clan, they treated him as such, and he became one of the best poison experts out there from it.

Now it was him being placed on a team with one of their children, how the circle comes together.

"You will meet your third teammate when you meet your sensei in room 365."

Shigure narrowed his eyes in suspicion. That was unusual, the only reason for the teammate to meet them at a later date if their team had disbanded or if they were from that weird En orphans. He really would be looked down if he ended up with one of them. They were meant to be on the front-lines, not the leader's grandson's team.

The class ended shortly after the teams were name, and Shigure headed off to their designated classroom, to meet their sensei Sheru meeting up with him.

"Really hope we don't get one of those Ens, that would suck."

He started up, attempting to make conversation. The kid hummed, as if he wasn't really listening to him.

"Most likely we are. We aren't in a time of war so many teams are not being disbanded."

Shigure deadpanned, sighing at the boy's bluntness. It reminded him of his sister.

"That's just great." He grunted out, walking into the room. There sat their teacher, hunched over and looking out of the window into the raining cityscape. As he heard the door slid open, he looked over, looking over the two boys.

He muttered something that sounded a lot like 'great, more brats', before putting on an obviously fake cheery smile.

"Yo, I'm Rokusho Aoi," He said in a sickly sweet tone, it was so obvious how much this man did not want to be here. He had green-tinted hair, some tamed bangs framed his face while the rest was set free in an unruly way. He had dark purple eyes, sharp and calculating. Although he had feminine qualities about him, he had a sharp masculine look. An Ame headband sat proudly on his head.

That's when it clicked in Shigure's head. He knew this man. He went undercover a couple years ago, to Konoha of all places. Apparently he was a genius at genjutsu, could particularly make anyone think anything about him. Although he wasn't the most powerful of jounin in records of strength, he was a smart and ruthless one.

Now, time to wait for the fourth and final member of this new team.

Sakura was called out of the small sitting room she and a few others from the bunker were in. She followed the chunin out the door, they walked a wide hallway that spirals up. It was a silent walk, and soon the chunin stopped at door 365.

"Here we are. Good luck, you're going to need it." The unnamed chunin commented with a gruff voice, before walking off.

Sakura gulped, suddenly feeling very self-conscious and tugging at her clothes. She probably looked no better than the ragdolls little girls carried around, tearing at the seams.

Taking a quick breath, she slid open the door to find a taller boy pacing the floor, snapping his gaze to her. He sneered as soon as he took in her appearance.

"I can't believe it."

He muttered, shaking his head. Her face flushed slightly, she was getting better at concealing her emotions, but she could not help the redness that always seemed to spread if she was embarrassed or mad.

She nervously ran her hand through her short hair, still only about an inch away from her head. Looking around, she saw another boy, more around her age, lounging in one of the class seats, his eyes were closed, but his blood-red hair stuck out like a sore thumb. Then she caught another male, older, but not older than Kyou-sensei, looking at her with something akin disgust.

He seemed to shake it off.

"Ah, you must be Sakura-chan! Pleasure to meet you." His tone made her cringe, he was trying too hard to be nice, or maybe it was on purpose.

"I'm Aoi-sensei, these are your teammates, Shigure-sama and Sheru-kun." At the mention of his name, Sheru opened one eye, looking towards the young pink-haired female. His honey-colored eyes seemed very familiar, but Sakura could not place them.

She put on a smile, though it did not reach her eyes.

"Nice to meet my new team," she did a quick bow at all of them. Shigure sneered.

"How did I get stuck with an En!?" He whipped around to face his new Sensei. The sensei's eyes narrowed at the boy's behavior, his smile turning a bit crooked.

"Remember whose sensei here, Shigure-sama," he said in an antagonizing way. The older boy seemed like he wanted to bit out a remark, but held back.

"Sakura-chan is with us today because she was best of her class, in fact, she was far better than your lot, excluding Sheru-kun, of course. So Shigure-sama, you seem to be stuck with two prodigies while you have failed the same class three times. What does that tell you?"

Sakura looked nervously between the two, the tension thick between them. It seemed Aoi enjoyed pushing buttons, and Shigure was easily angered.

"You-"

"Alright team! Let's inform each other of who you are…" Aoi interrupted, muttering something that suspiciously sounded like 'not that anyone cares'.

"Ladies first- Shigure you're up!" He said ever so cheerfully, Shigure snarled at him.

"I'm Tokage Shigure. If you didn't know, which you probably do, I'm Hanzo-sama's grandson-"

"Don't try to leech on that name to much Shigure-kun."

Ignoring Aoi's interruption, he continued.

"I don't want anything much in life, that's all."

"Surprisingly simple, alright, Sakura-chan."

She looked to the ground nervously.

"I'm Sakura. I am here to make a name out of myself and serve Amekagure in the best way I can. I wish to grow stronger, and that is it."

"I like it so far, simple and simple. No nasty ambitions to get in the way. Sheru?"

The boy opened both of his eyes, glancing at Sakura for a minute before looking at Aoi.

"I'm Yudoku Sheru."

There was a small pause, everyone waiting in anticipation of what he will say. After a minute, it was clear he wasn't planning to add anymore.

Aoi's eyebrow ticked slightly.

"Oo-okay. Well. I'm Aoi-sensei, address me as such. I don't care where you are from, I don't like you and remember that because if you act up, I will destroy you, got it?" He smiled almost genuinely for the first time, although his words made Sakura and Shigure raise an eyebrow.

"Well, nice talk. We are going to a private dojo, generously donated to us by Hanzo's administers." There was a slight cough from Shigure, and Aoi glared at him which silenced him for the moment.

"I will show you where it is, and Sakura-chan. I understand you don't have a place to stay?"

She nodded a bit shyly. Aoi laughed, she didn't really understand, only that he was very weird.

"That stinks for you."

After an awkward pause he waved her off.

"Just kidding, you can sleep in the dojo's spare bedroom."

"O-Okay, gomasnai." She said, quite confused at their sensei's erratic behavior.

"Follow me brats." He headed out of the room, the three kids following him.

The woman had made him do every chore in the book and more so for the past year. Though he sometimes outwardly complained, it was nice to have a sort of scary mother-figure in his life. Iruka was great, but he thought of him as a big brother at times, and Iruka was busy a lot, being a teacher and ninja took a lot of his time.

Chie, being retired, always had time for him. Sometimes he would spend all day, helping her around the house, raking leaves in the fall, pruning trees and such. It wasn't things he necessarily enjoyed, but he enjoyed being around someone who told him to keep his elbows off the table when eating.

He liked to think she secretly enjoyed having a kid to bug too, though he wasn't sure.

Naruto had just finished trimming the bushes in her little yard when he walked into her living room. She was sitting there, going through some pictures with heavy eyes.

"Whatcha doing obaa-chan?"

Green eyes lifted to him.

"Pronounce your words, Naruto. I am simply going through some pictures."

Naruto walked over to her, peering over her shoulder, knowing she hated that.

"Just come and sit beside me, boy, I do not appreciate to hear your breath right in my ear."

He grinned sheepishly as his plan worked, plopping on the couch next to her. He hands shook ever so slightly as she went through the pictures, but Naruto pretended not to notice. Like he pretended not to notice how she had gotten frailer this year, having to shuffle around or use a cane to walk around town. Yes these were things he pretended not to notice, because he was afraid what the answer would be if he asked her what was wrong.

"I've never showed you a picture of my granddaughter, have I?"

Naruto shook his head, trying to peer at the picture. In fact, this past year she hadn't mention much about her granddaughter, another topic Naruto tried not to bring up. He could be pretty dense at times, but he does notice things after a while, like how Chie was most likely nice to him in memory of her granddaughter. He didn't bring her up because he didn't want to remind Chie that he was most definitely not her granddaughter, she never brought it up either, maybe for the same reason.

A picture was handed to him, a smiling five year old was looking into the camera, her pink hair ruffling in the wind while her green eyes were wide and looked very kind.

"Wow- she is really cute, ya know!"

As he said that, she smacked him on the head. He pretended to pout, but continued to look at the picture. Now that he was looking, he kind of wished he knew her, she looked very nice.

"Did you have pink-hair obaa-chan?"

"Kami no, that came from her father. The man was already had a fool of a personality, only to have pink hair on top of that. It was bad enough they gave her the name that was more a pun than an actual name, poor girl, couldn't go for a traditional, simple name."

Chie sighed longingly, gazing at the picture.

"This was the last picture they sent me. The letter they sent me with it said they were finally returning home."

She said, almost as if rambling off.

"They found my daughter and her husband's body, yet they never found my granddaughter- I always felt that there may be hope-" She suddenly stopped, a hardness taking her eyes.

"I apologize Naruto that was no kind of talk for inside the house. Why don't we get some dinner made."

She got up, but a hand pulling at her sleeve stopped her. She turned around to stare into Naruto's determined eyes.

"I wasn't lying before, obaa-chan. I'll find her when I become a strong ninja, I promise you!"

Her eyes softened, and for the first time she let out a smile. She kneeled down, running a hand through his unruly hair.

"I think… I do believe you child."

Naruto blinked, surprised at her sudden affection. It was gone as fast as it came, she got up and headed to the kitchen.

"Come, Naruto, time to teach you how to make some rice.

 _We have confirmed Sakura's grandmother! I was going to make the grandmother on the Haruno side, but I feel like the stern Mebuki side fitted better with child Naruto._

 _I originally was going to have an oc as their sensei, but after a little research, I found Aoi, that gem from a filler episode. Look him up! Or maybe you remember him, he's from that Idate Morino (Ibiki's younger brother) filler._

 _Meanings:_

 _En: Skinhead. Just a slander at how the orphans at Kyou's bunker have to shave their head._

 _Hope you enjoyed!_

 _-Apotheosis_


	6. Revealed

They arrived to the doju, located close to Hanzo's tower, towards the center of town.

"Alright, brats. This is your new training area. Let's have a quick sparring session, see where your skills are right now. So, any volunteers?"

Surprisingly, Sakura was the first to step up. She needed some way to prove herself, and even if she did lose, at least she could show she had guts.

Shigure turned his nose up at her, while Sheru looked lazily at her while stepping forward without a word.

"Great, our first volunteers. Now go over there, remember, not extreme ninjutsu or elemental, if you've even gotten to that point. Try to keep it to taijutsu so we can keep this dojo intact for a couple more training sessions."

With that, they made their way to the circle designated for these kinds of fights. They bowed to each other as was tradition.

Sakura slid into fighting stance, staring at Sheru, waiting for him to make the first move. He narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

"I'll end this quickly," he promised, Sakura frowned at the obvious ego he had for such a quiet person. He dashed towards her, he was pretty fast while she wasn't all that quick.

She was quickly being pushed away to retreat. Just as Sheru thought he was going to land a punch, only for her to use a basic body flicker that had her appear behind him sending a punch towards him. His position led to him to have an inconvenient time with dodging it. He managed to move it so it didn't hit his face and caught it in his awaiting shoulder.

He didn't expect it to feel like a grown man was punching him.

His body fell at the unexpected weight behind the punch. Sakura was quick to follow up her punch and go after him, he recovered fast, and using his legs to flip himself upright and was quick to dodge her quick jabs.

"You're surprisingly strong for a little girl..."

She sent him a small, confident smirk, her eyes lighting up with fire as they sparred. For a couple minutes they exchanged taijutsu moves, Sheru sure to dodge her tiny, unpredictable fist. However he had a new weakness, his shoulder, which was still sore from the punch.

He could see her breath getting heavier, seemed like she didn't have that much stamina left. Her exhaustion caught up with her and he was able to get a kick to connect with her stomach. A popping sound echoed through the room and he realized she substituted herself with a training dummy. He narrowed his eyes and whipped his body around, only for her to not be there.

His eyes widened as he heard a noise above him- how did she get there, most genin don't know how to wall climb. He whipped his head up, bringing his hands up attempting to dislodge her punch and save his face.

However, as Sakura came down on him, he felt a sharp kick to his jaw, making his eyes bulge slightly as he was flew back a few feet.

Sheru laid on the flow, blinking dizzyingly at the girl in front of him. What attacked him from above was actually a clone, and the real Sakura had in fact taken his kick to the stomach, but made herself transform into a training dummy and threw him off by sending her clone at him.

Smart, even if she was now crouched down holding her stomach and panting from exertion. He had underestimated her and she managed to take him by surprise. Even if she was down too now, she had brought him down with her.

Clapping was heard as Aoi approached to them, smiling widely.

"While you still stink, you seem to stink in a good way." He really was weird. Sakura got up, limping lightly towards Sheru who glared at her. She leaned down, holding out two fingers.

Ah, the signal of no hard feelings. He begrudgingly held out his two fingers and clasped them with her own and she helped him onto her feet.

Aoi was now looking at Shigure with a wide smile.

"It's your turn Shigure-kun, you will going against me since your teammates wore themselves out on eachother."

Shigure's eyes widened and he was regretting not going against Sakura in this instant.

"I promise I won't go easy on you, Shigure-kun," He said in a dark tone as the fourteen-year old boy approached him.

He did not go easy on Shigure.

Shigure was crumpled on the ground in less than five minutes, groaning in pain as Aoi swung his odd looking sword handle around.

"This might be a bit more fun than I thought." He muttered to himself.

Naruto had been waiting on Chie's door for a while now. He was starting to wonder if she maybe went to the market, but it was already in the evening and shops would be closing down by now. He hesitantly tried the knob, surprised that is was open. He thought she was a way more cautious person than that.

Walking into the familiar home, he made his way through the house, looking for her before finally going to her bedroom. Again he knocked, the door only creaked open under his small fist. Gulping, he walked in the room, to find Chie collapsed by her dresser.

His eyes widened and he cried out her name. Running towards her in a rush. He shook her but she didn't not respond, there was a nasty gash on her head where she must have hit the dresser.

"Obaa-chan! Wake up!" He practically cried out, his eyes watering as she didn't respond. He had to help her, he had to go find help.

That brought him to the point of running frantically calling out for Iruka. He didn't know where his sensei lived, but hoped his loudness would cause him or someone to get him.

He ran around wildly, only stopping when someone grabbed him by the collar.

"Yo."

Naruto looked back with his eyes filled with tears, his blurred vision only made out white hair and mostly clothed body. The ninja was probably going to kick him out for his ruckus, he planned to try to sway him before that.

"P-Please mister I need to find Iruka-sensei! I w-went over to Obaa-chan's house and she was knocked out! She needs help! Please mister, you can kick me out or whatever! Just help her, ya know!"

He never had said please so much in his life, Chie would be proud. The thought made him cry harder.

To his surprised the ninja let go of him, only to pick him up and carry him piggyback style.

"Where is she?"

Naruto stumbled over the directions, but the man seemed to understand and took off faster than he had seen any ninja go. His hair blew back and he tried to hide himself from the cold air that stung his eyes.

They were there in a few short minutes and the man set him down in front of Chie's home and let himself inside. Naruto sat on the porch, crying while he waited for the man to appear. The man came out, and for the first time Naruto noticed his odd appearance of spiky white hair and one of his eyes covered by a leaf headband, along with a mask to further obscure his face.

Naruto didn't think about it too much before realizing he had Chie's frail looking body cradled in his arms.

"I-Is she going to be okay?"

His lone eye seemed to contemplate what to tell the young boy.

"I'm going to take her to the hospital, I will send someone to get you."

His voice was oddly soothing and Naruto nodded as the ninja took off towards the hospital.

Alone, Naruto waited.

After a training was done, she was assigned to work on water walking, seeing as she had mastered wall-walking, same with Sheru. Shigure was to train on wall-walking. They would meet three days a week for training while the four other days would be reserved for missions, which were mainly going out to farmlands and helping with crops, rebuilding destroyed buildings, paperwork sorting and small task that seemed a bit mundane for ninja.

Sakura was happy though. She thought she had a successful first day as a ninja, and hoped for more to come. Currently she was in the small room that was to be hers, located off of the doju. She liked this set up since she could train whenever she wanted.

She had placed a small tub on the floor, attempting to stand correctly on it. It was surprisingly harder than wall-walking.

Yes, training would be mundane at first, but she had hopes for getting more thrilling as time went by. Not only did she have a knack for it, she actually enjoyed planning out strategies and executing them.

Her mind slipped off the task at mind as the door slid open, making her slip in the bucket of water and make a splash.

Whipping her head around, her eyebrows rose as she saw it was only Sheru.

"Sheru-san, what are you doing here? Did you leave something?"

She asked, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"No."

He simply said, walking towards her and looking her up and down in a judging way. His eyes were so familiar, she still didn't know where from.

"I am your contact, Sakura. You probably don't remember the first time we met as you were mostly unconscious and in an ungodly amount of pain."

 _Irritated eyes looked down at her while his hands worked quickly._

"Wait," her eyes narrowed, it wasn't possible.

"I am the one that healed you."

"B-But how? You weren't a child-"

"I do not appreciate being questioned, girl. I will get straight to the point so this is over quickly."

She stepped out of the bucket and a little away from him.

"I am your contact for this mission of ours. Konan will send me future jobs and we will more or less work together to complete them."

Sakura's fist tightened up in a small ball as she remembered Konan. The blue-haired beauty. The one who took care of her yet still managed to be cold as ice. She relaxed slightly, but still didn't trust Sheru.

"I have planted here for a while, however Konan brought you as back-up. Just in case. I believe she has other plans for you as well, as long as you complete your mission successfully."

For seconds they just stared at each other, Sakura's mind taking in all the new information.

Finally she let out a small nod.

"Hai, Sheru-san."

His lazy but calculating eyes stayed on her for a minute. It always seemed people seemed to be looking for her worth, it made her knuckles turn white.

"Good. I will get in touch whenever we have a new job."

With that, he turned to leave.

"Is your real name Sheru?"

The boy smirked slightly, a bit to mature for a boy his age.

"No."

::

 _Can you guess who Sheru is? I made it pretty obvious a few times. He will be explained more in further chapters as well!_

 _Chie's time has come and go, but you will see a bit more of her before she completely goes._

 _I hope you enjoyed the team interaction and the Kakashi intro!_

 _-Apotheosis_


	7. The End of a Generation

Iruka had been the one to get him and lead him through the hospital. Naruto looked down, his eyes red and puffy as he walked down the quiet hospital hallways.

The man looked down to the boy, sighing sadly. Naruto had been telling him of an old granny that had been having him do work for her while paying him with food. Iruka was suspicious at first, but after a background check it seemed like the lady was a loyal Konoha-nin, at least back in the day. She retired at the tender age of 20 to raise her only daughter, Kohaku Mebuki. It seemed her husband at the time died while she was still pregnant in the second ninja war.

It was a sad story, especially when she lost her daughter a mere few years ago, along with her granddaughter. However the woman seemed to be strong and held through. It seemed she had the ball of sunshine called Naruto into her life, maybe to ease the pain.

Iruka tried not to look too much into it, but he knew Chie and Naruto shared an odd connection. They approached a door that the nurse in the front station pointed them to, and opened it up to reveal a tired looking woman sitting up in her cot, reading what looked to be a standard hospital magazine.

Naruto rushed in, giving the lady an awkward hug.

Chie had never being a touchy feely person, Naruto knew.

"Obaa-chan!"

The woman seemed surprised, but let out a small smile and patted Naruto on the head.

"Thank you Naruto, if it wasn't for you, I'd still be a mess on my floor."

Naruto blushed at her gratefulness, grinning sheepishly. Then he took a box that had been in his hand.

"Here's that box you go through a lot, I thought you might want it, ya know! Oh and I also picked you a flower on the way over- oh" he looked down at the flower that had crumpled in his hand. The woman chuckled before putting it in the box he also handed to her.

Iruka leaned against the doorway, watching the interesting interaction.

"Naruto, I do not think I will be here for much longer."

Something flashed in the young boys cerulean eyes, disappearing quickly.

"That's great, obaa-chan! Hospitals stink."

Chie gave Naruto a firm stare, shaking her head. The boy looked down, knowing what she truly meant.

"You know that's not what I mean, boy."

There was a tense moment, quite as the boy tried adjusting his mind around the oncoming death of a friend. She continued before he could open his mouth.

"I want to thank you, for not only what you did tonight, but for this past year. I only knew my granddaughter for a little bit before her parents took off with her. I loved that little bundle, more than I knew I could. When my daughter was found dead and my granddaughter was missing, I didn't know how I could go on. For a long time, it felt like I wasn't even alive, I simply was just here."

She sighed, taking a deep breath to try to hold back her emotions.

"Look at me getting so emotional… However, Naruto, when I first met you, I thought I was replacing the empty spot that was reserved for my granddaughter. Naruto, you are not my granddaughter and I have realized that, and you could never fill that spot."

Naruto bit his lip, feeling like Chie was going to really kick him to the curb this time at the worst of times. However, her face softened and she gazed out the window, her eyes dazing off into the nighttime.

"You managed to make your own spot in my small, cold heart. You brought me joy without even trying. I never knew I could love someone else that hadn't already disappeared from my family, but somehow you managed to wiggle yourself in."

She sent him a one in a kind smile, one he didn't think he could forget. His eyes watered as he looked down, trying to hide his tears.

"Obaa-chan…"

"Boy, I don't wish to see me like this, so I must-"

"I'm going to stay! Believe it." He said before she could dismiss him. She tsked at his attitude, but smiled.

"Fine, you stubborn mule. Well to keep us entertained, why don't I tell you a story about my husband's clan, the Kohaku."

Iruka had never seen anything more simple, but such a heartfelt relationship. He was glad the boy was able to find a female role model, even if she had little time with them.

Months rolled by and they continued mundane missions while Aoi worked their butts off the three days they trained.

It was odd receiving money, she had never gotten any money before. Now she had an official job. It was definitely satisfying, especially when she could afford new clothes that didn't look a few sizes to big or small. Her first purchase was official ninja sandals, they were the nicest things she owned up to this point.

Shigure had somewhat opened up to her, but still was a bit dismissive, while Sheru still never talked unless needed, even then he barely responded. Ever since their first spar, he showed no mercy to her in their spars and usually took her down without hesitation. He was a prodigy indeed. Although it irritated her to no end, she begrudgingly admitted to herself that it helped her grow stronger and helped her think quicker.

Aoi stayed as erratic as ever, seemingly to take pleasure in their pain, well at least Sakura's and Shigure's, Sheru usually did not get caught up in any kind of shenanigans.

Their skills had improved, while Sakura worked on her own chakra control, Aoi brought her under his wing for genjutsu as well, something she surprisingly excelled at. Sheru had no problem with his training, he really never even sought help and Sakura assumed he had his own special training that made him in league with Konan. Shigure on the other hand was a more assault type, and was really precise with senbon, the one thing him and Sheru shared in common.

The team was dysfunctional at times, especially when Aoi showed his true temperament was quick to anger. However, they were all capable ninja and showing signs of becoming a fine team one day.

Sakura brushed her awkwardly short hair, it was growing out again, and it had yet to even touch her shoulders yet.

Loud knocking broke her out of her thoughts, making her look towards the bathroom door.

"Come on Sakura! You're taking forever!"

Shigure voice grunted out. She narrowed her eyes, she had changed also along with her team. She had been a bit shy beforehand, however these few months with her slightly obnoxious team made her a bit more confident with her tongue and quick to stand up for herself.

"Be out in a minute."

She grounded out, shaking out her wet hair before stepping out into the small inn room. She had to share a room with the boys, Aoi claiming he didn't even know if she was a girl at times with her brute strength. That comment had made her seethe, but she knew better to comment back, seeing how many times Shigure got his butt handed to him by Aoi.

They laid three futon mats on the floor, and she got the middle one. Apparently boys had problems sleeping next to each other. It was weird.

She grumbled slightly as she plopped down on her mat, looking over at Sheru to see him reading a jutsu scroll. His eyes were narrowed slightly as he completely ignored her. He did that a lot, and she really hated to be ignored. As shameful as it was, she found herself being a suck-up and wanting approval, especially seeing as Sheru seemed to have things figured out, even more then their sensei. She knew it was a bad habit, but she couldn't help but love the reactions on her teams face as she carried a whole wooden support piece. Well all reactions besides Sheru.

Peeking over, she started reading the scroll herself. It was pretty advanced medical stuff, yet Sheru was taking it in without a thought.

"Stop looking over my shoulder, girl." He rarely ever even called her by her name.

"Where did you get that?" She asked curiously, quite honestly she had ran out of things to read. After many nights in the doju and looking into ninja archives, at least the ones open to her, she had gone through many nights of just straight reading. She could never get bored of it, until she pretty much read all the interesting stuff.

"None of your business."

She narrowed her eyes at him. Even though he was supposedly older, he sure acted like a child at times.

"Shouldn't you be trying to help your team grow stronger and smarter?" She snipped back. That was one of the most annoying traits of Sheru, he never helped out. He sparred, he usually won, he succeeded at everything, yet he never gave any pointers or helped his teammates. Sakura always tries to help Shigure if she can, like with water walking, she was the one to explain it to him. Aoi's explanation was more or less 'go for it'. He begrudgingly took her advice. Shigure also helped Sakura in way, although calling it help was a stretch, he was quick to tell her the faults, especially when it came to taijutsu.

It wasn't exactly teaching, but Sakura was made aware of her weakness and worked to get rid of it.

Not a peep from Sheru, no advice, no telling her where she had messed up when they spar and he wins. It was obvious he preferred to work alone and all but ignored the rest of his team.

"What have you ever done to help me? Do you think I got here by receiving handouts?" He questioned, glaring at her slightly. Sakura huffed, sitting back and crossing her arms while they had a glared at each other.

"You're so full of yourself. You think you're so invincible, and it's so annoying! We're ninja and we have to expect the unexpected. Sure, maybe you will go through life without a hitch and you find out you never really needed us, but maybe someday you'll be on your back with only us to defend you. Would you like a capable ninja or ones that are weak?"

He scoffed, turning away and going back to reading his scroll. "'What if' stories do not prove anything."

Sakura seethed, getting up and leaving the room to get some air. The boy could be an arrogant ass most of the time.

After a half an hour of angry pacing in the lounge area of the inn, she finally made her way back. Shigure was out of the shower, passed out like a log in the far mat, while Sheru wasn't to be seen. Probably in the shower if the sound of running water was to prove anything.

To her surprise, a scroll was set neatly on her mat. She scowled, boys were so confusing.

Begrudgingly she sat on her mat while picking up the scroll and reading its contents, not even acknowledging Sheru as he walked out and laid down.

A week had passed and Naruto barely left the now fragile woman's bedside, only for school. He talked a lot, but to his surprise, she opened up about her past. Which was pretty awesome, it turns out she was a pretty badass ninja back in the day, only retiring to raise her daughter.

He asked advice for becoming a ninja, and all she said is 'never give up'.

This night, she had told him how much trouble she gave her daughter Mebuki for marrying a pink-haired man. Naruto had to admit he probably would have poked fun at the pink-hair.

As she was settling for bed and Naruto was leaving for home, she grabbed Naruto's hand.

"Naruto, I just want to say goodbye, and will you keep this safe for me?"

It was funny, she never said goodbye. Her words rang through Naruto's head and he realized why. It made him mad, it made him sad. In her hand was the box she loved so much, it had pictures and little books along with some little trinkets the woman had gathered throughout the years. Naruto wanted to smack it out of her hands for offering it to him.

However, at the same time, he knew this was coming. She knew this was coming. This was her closure to him, so he wouldn't be left out of the loop like he usually was, he had told her before how many people closed him out. He took the box gently, throwing one last grin at the woman.

"Of course, Obaa-chan! I'll see you soon!"

He called out as he left the room, waving at her. The woman let out a smile before resting her eyes to sleep.

Naruto stayed at her doorway, none of the nurses or medics noticed him as they ran into the room, their systems alerting them of the old woman's heart failure. He clutched onto the box, willing his tears to stay at bay. Eventually, they carried the woman out, a sheet covering her body.

An hour came and past before he lifted himself on shaky legs. The pain of loss in his body was worse than loneliness, it was an aching hole left in his heart someone had once filled. At this moment, he knew he never wanted loose a precious person again, and would try his hardest in the future to prevent them from being lost.

It had been Chie's time, he could live with that. He would be sad and nothing would help that, at least not for a while.

He patted the dusty box, shedding one last watery glance before leaving the hospital.

::

 _Relationships form and relationships fall out! You see Sakura molding into something like her pre-shippuden character. Obviously, she does not have the distraction of Sasuke, but she has the some of the same faults such as seeking approval, not wanting to be left behind, a bit of a suck-up and soon to be a over-achiever. It's a bit hard, because these first few chapters are just to set-up for the main part, which is only about two chapters away._

 _Naruto's part is finished now, and the seed has been sown. I was planning for Chie to live and be the one to eventually recognize Sakura when she finally comes around, however I feel like this is more fitting._

 _Hope you enjoyed!_

 _Apotheosis~_


	8. Teamwork

They had been working with a farming family for a week now trying to exterminate overly vicious bugs that happened to be the size of a human's head, which had already attacked and injured several of the family's farm workers. Sakura didn't want to admit how grossed out she was at the bugs, but she could tell even Aoi had problems dealing with giant bugs, taking his disgusted sneer into account every time they killed one.

"It looks like they've been poisoned," Sheru commented as he poked and prodded a dead bug, about 15 littered the ground.

"Instead of it poisoning them, it infused with their blood and accelerated their growth rate, at the same time giving them a rabid attitude." Sakura and Shigure stared at Sheru as if he had popped out another head. Not only did he say a full sentence, he also sounded like he actually was proud of the killer giant bugs.

No one even noticed as Sakura kneeled down next to one and attempted to summon medical jutsu, attempting to do as the scroll Sheru had leant her explained. To her slight disappointment, nothing happened after several tries.

"You would be correct, know-it-all," Aoi barely even called them by their actual names anymore, unless he was condescendingly added -kun or -chan. "Even though these bugs somewhat living with the poison, it's still parasitic, the lives of these bugs are most likely no more than a week. But can anyone tell me how fast these bugs can reproduce?"

Sakura was not too familiar with the species here, she reminded herself to look more into that when they got back. Shigure sighed beside her.

"They can mate and reproduce with a 48 hour time limit."

"Didn't know you actually had knowledge hidden in that air balloon you call a head." Shigure glared at their sensei. Aoi smiled.

"However, Shigure-kun is correct, that means trying to kill them one by one will be utterly useless and a failure to this mission. Sakura-chan, I haven't heard your screeching this whole time, would you like to conclude this."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at his comment, as she stood up and faced their sensei.

"We have to find the source of the poison, taking in account how many of these giant disgusting bugs there are, I assume that their nest will be somewhere either within the poison source or at least nearby it."

"We've got a winner, so, first we are going to go see if maybe any of these farmers know anything, which I highly doubt these nit-wits do, then we will search the ground for clues. Sheru, ask in the northern section, Shigure, eastern, Sakura southern, and you've probably figured out were I'll be. Alright, met back here when you're finished."

With that they jumped away, each heading the appropriate way. After about two hours of asking around and checking out what pesticides the farmers used, she found nothing and headed back to the meeting place.

It seemed Sheru and Aoi had no luck either as they were already lounging in a sort of calm silence when she got back.

"Hopefully Shigure can bring something useful," she muttered, looking around. It wasn't even ten minutes Shigure came rushing up to them, looking quite serious.

"There's a salamanders nest north-east of here, at least it's suspected to be one."

Aoi looked thoughtful for a second, before shrugging.

"Might as well give it a go. Salamanders around here are known for their poisonous tendencies," the fact was directed to Sakura, seeing as she seemed a bit confused with the fauna around Ame.

Shigure showed them a map where a small circled are showed where there had been sightings of salamanders. As Aoi locked in the location, they headed out with no time to loose.

They made good time, and were able to even search around the area a bit before nightfall hit, however they found nothing. Aoi instructed them to set up camp, he and Shigure would work on the tents and fire while Sheru and Sakura set up traps, both of them having a knack for it.

The two youngest members worked together silently, but were able to set up a few decent traps around the camp.

As they finished up, they barely looked at each other and headed where Shigure and Aoi finished setting up camp, well more Aoi watching Shigure set up camp.

Sitting around the tent, it was decided Shigure and Sakura would take first watch. It was silent for a long time when Aoi and Sheru went to bed.

Shigure's eyes perked up as he heard something rustle. It was something Sakura noticed right off the bat, his five senses were stronger than most, he could smell a dango stand from over a mile away, a skill Sakura liked in particular.

"What is it?"

She whispered, he narrowed his eyes.

"Not sure, it seems like it's quite a bit away. It's making a lot of noise though."

Sakura strained to hear, using her chakra to try to enhance her senses. It had worked a bit, but she realized she had to probably have an in depth knowledge of the body part she had to enhance. It was easy with adding chakra to her fist, she was good at building it up and releasing it at the right moment.

Even with her slightly enhanced hearing, she heard nothing.

"I'm going to go check it out." He stood up after a bit and she stood up with him.

"Shouldn't we wake up Aoi-sensei?"

Shigure shook his head.

"You know how sensei gets when his beauty sleep is disturbed. Plus it's probably nothing."

Sakura shuddered, Aoi was worse than any bear would ever be when woken up to early. However she still fidgeted as Shigure adjusted his pack, she had a gut feeling it wasn't just nothing, and gut feelings for ninja were usually pretty accurate.

"I'll be right back."

With that he jumped into the trees above them, avoiding her and Sheru's traps. After a moment hesitation, she followed after him.

"What are you doing?"

He asked her sternly, giving her a sharp stare. Even though he was almost scowling or snoring, he had a nice face. A strong jaw, dark eyes and he was older. Sakura thought that and immediately started blushing. She thought these things at the worst times. Quickly swallowing and putting her inner thoughts to the back of her mind, she answered him.

"I'm making sure my teammate doesn't kill himself. We're only genin, it wouldn't be wise for one of us to go out alone."

There was a quiet silence as he mulled over her answer. She didn't see him slightly smirk, before grunting as an answer.

It only took them a few minutes to track down where the noise was coming from. However when they thought they were close to the noise and stopped on a tree branch to listen, it was silent. Only raindrops pattering around could be heard as both pairs of eyes looked around suspiciously.

Sakura gulped, although the noise stopped, it didn't feel right. The area was pitch black, and even though she was attempting to enhance her eyesight, it wasn't working out well.

"Shigure-"

He didn't even talk, only put his hand on her mouth. He was hearing or seeing something that she couldn't.

Then she heard it, too late to respond. Behind them a branch broke and something large and black jumped towards them. Sakura let out a cry as Shigure tackled both himself and her to the ground below. They were able to roll and catch themselves, but it wasn't long when they started hearing something resembling a growl and hiss combined.

"Shit." Shigure shouted, grabbing Sakura's arm quickly and forcing her to run.

"What is that?!" She whispered shouted at him.

"A black salamander- they are one of the most fatally poisonous species in the world."

That was all he had to say before something rushed at them. He pushed her away from him and the large salamander slithered right through them, hissing and snapping its jaws as his claws dug into the earth. It was quick to turn, and although Sakura could barely see, she could see its glimmering scales just slightly. She was quick to dodge as it charged her.

She flipped herself around, trying to land a strong punch to it, however it had already slithered away. Shigure let out a grunt of exertion and she ran towards the sound. Her teammate was better at dodging and sending kunai that actually hit the beast, judging from its enraged snarls. She knew it was hard for him, him being a senbon user more than the heavier weapons like kunai and shuriken.

"3 o'clock, attack!"

He shouted towards her, and she didn't hesitate to send a punch in the direction he said, feeling her fist meet the slimy, thick skin of a salamander. She attempted to put more chakra then she usually did. Her knuckles burned and Sakura knew her own chakra was burning her, she ground her teeth at the pain but the salamander was knocked off it's balance and retreated back.

The salamander was quick to attack again, however Shigure and Sakura were able to defend themselves as well as go on the offensive. With Shigure backing her up, he yelled where Sakura needed to hit and her being the perfectionist over-achiever, did it. Her mind started memorizing how the salamander moved, even though it was a wild animal, she was able to figure out what side it favored and how much time it took to recover.

They worked as a team, and it was one of the best feelings Sakura had ever felt to know someone had her back.

It seemed like they were at a stalemate however, the beast was strong and Sakura was quickly wearing out since she was only able to attack with taijutsu and her chakra-enhancements. Genjutsu wouldn't work on an animal, at least not the ones she knew.

"Sakura move-"Shigure's voice was right behind her, he was panicked and so was she. She didn't have time to move now that her body was being to feel sluggish and tired.

The Salamander let out a horrific screech and Sakura could feel movement in front of her as Shigure moved quickly behind her. She felt his rough hands push her a mere few feet, her body squelching under the mud. A scream of pain, definitely human, sounded where she had been and she scrambled up heading towards it.

"Shigure!" She screamed.

She took out her last kunai, holding it up and blindly rammed her shoulder into the salamander as it was going for the killing bite. Her kunai dug into its skin and it hissed in irritation, slithering away to a safe distance. Sakura recovered fast and dropped her kunai as she dropped herself to the ground, following the sound of Shigure's pained cries. Finally her hands landed on his jacket, wrapping her hands around him, she added chakra to her arms and jumped away as the salamander began it's attack.

Just as she thought the salamander was going to attack again, the area lit up with Aoi's sword. Her eyes widened, never having seen it in action. It was amazing, and blinding bright light covered both her and Shigure as their sensei quickly took care of the salamander. For the first time since they left the light of camp, she looked at him, her eyes widening as his face was bubbling with the poisonous bacteria from the salamander, while he bleed profusely from the claw marks. His hands were up in his face, trying to stop the bleeding and the pain.

Her hands shook as she removed his hand. It was bad. He was most likely going to die here if she couldn't think of something.

Sakura's shaking hands worked before her mind even began to process what she was attempting to do, going on pure adrenaline. Her hands went through the correct hand seals. Nothing happened.

She did it again crying in frustration.

After the third try, her eyes widened as green chakra surrounded her hand. This is how they described it. Straddling Shigure's upper body, holding down his struggling hands that way, she put her hands on his face. Her eyebrows scrunched as she thought of all the things she knew about the human body, the nerves, the skin tissue, muscle, veins, how they were supposed to be. She felt the bacteria from the salamander's claw attempting to destroy blood cells, and she attempted to burn it out of his system.

He screamed harder and Sakura felt like she was hurting him more than helping him. He screamed and she cried with him, but forced the torn apart skin to stitch itself. It was not gentle sensation that scrolls usually explained healing chakra like. She knew it was raw and untrained, she knew she might be hurting Shigure more than helping him, but there was no other way.

Her hands burned as she struggled to maintain the jutsu, trying not to notice how his skin bubbled up and popped as if it was being burned also. At least it was beginning to look like an actual face again.

Shigure stopped struggling, finally giving into the pain and passing out, and not long she fell on top of him, the green glow of her hands fading and showing how burnt they were, as she succumbed to chakra exhaustion. Both were unaware of the two pairs of wide eyes belonging to their teammate and sensei.

::

Everything felt heavy, like a dream she saw blurred faces and white all around. She wondered if she died, but her heavy breathing and sore everything told her she was most likely still in the land of the living.

She did not know how long she was passed out, or how many times she woke up from nightmares containing torn apart faces and grisly scenes of blood and death.

After it seemed like years, her eyes woke up to bright white ceilings. Her eyelids begged to be taken with gravity, but Sakura urged them open. She was just plain exhausted, her body feeling as if it collapsed inside itself.

The pink-haired girl struggled to lift her upper body up, breathing heavily at the slight movement. She looked around, surprised to meet the honey eyes of Sheru walking into the door.

"Oh, you are up."

He simply said, and she scrunched her eyebrows up. Memories washed over her, Shigure's burning face under her hands. Her hands burned to. She looked down, looking at the palm of it to see that it was in fact discolored from the rest of her skin, along with her knuckles. She assumed her other hand matched it.

"W-Where's Shigure?" She muttered out, afraid of the answer.

"Living, which is what you're wondering. They say it's because of you that we was able to make it to Ame."

He sounded unimpressed with the whole thing, like usual. Sakura frowned, sitting upright.

"I-Is his face-"

"Ugly? No, at least not as bad as when you saw it. The medics were able to heal most of the burning, some of the scars were a bit too deep for them to help. He lost an eye."

She sighed, putting her face in her hands. Sakura didn't think she had ever been this stressed before.

"You got that jutsu from my scroll, correct?"

Only a slight nod came from her.

"Had you practiced it at all?"

It sounded like he already knew the answer to that one. She shook her head.

"I.. I don't know. I tried before, it didn't work so I just didn't think about it, b-but then I just saw his face and I knew he was going to die. I had to help him, it was my fault he got hit."

Sheru hummed uncaringly.

"Whatever the reason, it was impressive. I'll let your nurses know that you are awake."

With that he left without another word. For the first time Sheru had paid her somewhat of a compliment, yet she could not even dwell on that was her guilty conscious gnawed on her mind.

::

She was asleep when Shigure limped in. It was late in the night, barely a soul in the hospital hallways, still he had to avoid being caught by the graveyard crew that wandered the hospital.

He sat by her bed side, shaking her slightly.

"Sakura…"

She stirred awake, before her green eyes were widely staring at him. Emotions passed through her face, confused, surprise, then realization and guilt. Quite a combination.

"Shigure…" She murmured, avoiding his eyes. Shigure sighed, half his face was still covered, and it wasn't actually as bad as it looked, he always wanted battle scars, even if it was from a rabid salamander. Aoi had visited him earlier, giving him details on the mission. After both Sakura and Shigure had been hospitalized, Aoi and Sheru went back to the location during the day. Not even a kilometer away they had found a dead salamander, perhaps the mate of the one that attacked him and Sakura, and inside the dead salamander was a next full of the infected beetles. It explained a lot and they were quick to dispose the nest and the rest of the terrorizing bugs.

It was definitely an interesting story.

"I came here to thank you."

"Thank me? It's because of me you're hurt."

Shigure scoffed at her self-pitying nature.

"Don't pity yourself. I did that because I wanted to save you. I would have done that if it was Sheru-teme, I would have down it even if it was Aoi-teme. You guys are all pretty annoying, but you are my team, and sometimes we do need to help each other out. I figured that out mid-battle, a little late. I realized that because I was with you, we were fighting better and stronger than when we would have if separate."

Sakura looked up, surprised at Shigure's comment.

"I'm thanking you, because if you hadn't come after me, I would have died a lot quicker. I'm thanking you because you saved me when I chose to be the dumb idiot hero."

"I… I don't know what to say-"

"Say 'you're welcome'."

"Y-You're welcome," she said unsurely. Shigure let out a smirk, flicking her forehead making her scrunch up her nose slightly. A bit of an awkward silence followed after before Shigure sighed, scratching his exposed cheek.

"Well, I better get back before they send a search party for me, see ya at training."

With that he got up and left the room. Sakura watched as he shuffled out, her mouth quirking up into a smile. Leaning back in her caught, she let out a relieved sigh. Yes, she still felt guilty, but Shigure took a bigger load off her shoulders than he probably realized.

"I promise... I will get stronger. That will never happen again."

She whispered to no one, but the sentence solidified her will to become a great ninja.

::

After a few days of rest, that was in fact all you have to do for chakra exhaustion, she was good to go. Shigure had been released a day early, his face being healed as best as it could. As she was gathering her extra clothing, a medic-nin named Eri, stopped her. The medic took care of Shigure and was able to heal him a lot better then Sakura had.

"Sakura-san, excuse my sudden appearance, but it seems like you have a talent for medical jutsu. Your sensei, he informed me what had happened, and also informed me you have not trained in medic ninjutsu, at least not to his knowledge."

The girl let out a shrug, tugging at her clothes sheepishly.

"I wouldn't call it talent, more like beginners luck."

The medic let out a small giggle, shaking her head.

"There is no such thing as luck in the ninja world, Sakura-san. It's called using your knowledge to your advantage, which is exactly what you did, and you saved Shigure-sama's life because of that, and I feel like you could save even more if you harnessed it properly."

Sakura raised an eyebrow, she had never thought of a medical career for herself.

"Here in Ame, there is not many talented medic-nin, even I'm intermediate at best. We always need more, and I was thinking maybe you could come train with me, only a couples days a week. I understand you must complete missions with your teams still, but I would love to work something out with you. Teams also need on-field medics, yet most don't even have them," Eri continued, smiling encouragingly to Sakura.

The pink-haired girl considered. It's not something she was too thrilled about, she hated the smell of hospitals. However, it would be useful, as Eri said, to her team and future missions. If she became somewhat good, they wouldn't have to turn around in missions because one of them got injured.

"I will talk to my sensei about it, can I come meet you here if he agrees?"

Eri looked very pleased and nodded.

"Hai, Sakura-san. If I am not here you can leave a message and I can come seek you out."

"Alright, goodbye, Eri-san. I'll be in touch soon."

With that, Sakura left the hospital, new opportunities opening up for her.

::

 _And part 1 is completed, while setting in motion the future of Sakura. I hope that fight scene wasn't to bad, and the circumstances were semi-realistic (at least when it comes to Naru-verse)._

 _Now the fun part begins, less unknown characters are scooted aside and more main characters come out to play._

 _Hope you enjoy._

 _~Apotheosis_


	9. Part II: Coming Together

An elderly man limped through the hallways, heading towards the double doors. Opening, he found the Third Hokage to be speaking with one of the academy senseis, Iruka.

Hiruzen smiled pleasantly as he could to his old friend and rival. The other did not share the same sentiments.

"Danzo, what brings you here?"

"I was informed there is no suitable candidate for the Uchiha and Jinchuriki's team. I might be able to help you."

If the Hokage was irritated, he didn't show it. Iruka's angry face at Naruto being referred to 'jinchuriki' was noticeable though Danzo ignored that fact completely.

"Iruka, will you wait outside for a minute?"

The man reluctantly nodded, before heading out the door, closing it behind him. Hiruzen sighed, turning to his large bay windows over-looking the city he loved and protected.

"It is true. We would put the Yamanaka heir on the team, seeing as she is the best student, however that would break up the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, which has been a great asset in many battles since Konoha's formation. On the other hand, the Hyuuga heir does not balance out the team in intelligence. Sasuke has average intelligence while Naruto is lacking in the area. Anyone else would either break-up a potentially good team or just does not fit."

Danzo smirked, sitting in one of the chairs.

"I have a boy who is highly intelligent in my sector. He has already created his own form of jutsu, it is incredible actually. He is still not fully trained, and I did not plan to bring him out for a while, yet I do not want two potentially powerful tools to fail because they do not have a capable teammate."

Hiruzen thought it over. He really did not want to us one of Danzo's root operatives, yet Danzo said the boy was not finished training. It was a dangerous move and Hiruzen could potentially be putting both Naruto and Sasuke in danger of Danzo's plotting. Yet, he also begrudgingly knew that Danzo's kid soldiers were very talented, and could protect both from the troubles and obstacles they will no doubt face. Hiruzen's face stayed passive as he weighed out the pros and cons of the situation.

"Can I meet him?"

Danzo's smile widened as he nodded. He pulled out a scroll out and placed it on the ground, pushing chakra into it caused smoke to fill the area.

A boy, maybe a little bit older than Naruto, kneeled, dressed in all black. The hokage looked at the boy suspiciously, he didn't seem to have any killer intent like a lot of root agents.

"Hello there, your name…?" Hiruzen asked as the boy looked up, a fake smile blossoming on his face.

"You may call me Sai."

A teenager, no older than 16, sat hunched over, working on wooden-looking parts, his messy red-hair falling around his face as his honey-colored eyes stared in focus at the simple looking parts. Around him hung bodies, puppet ones consisting of wooden ones and human ones. It did not matter to him. He didn't even look as a blue-haired beauty descended down the steps of his room. There was no bed, he had no need for sleep.

He knew her distaste in the hideout because of the warm weather and usually sunny days. She only showed satisfaction when it rained. He personally didn't care, he preferred staying indoors anyways.

"Sasori." The woman stated with authority, the only annoyance the boy looking man made was a twitch of his finger. He never liked woman in charge, always too full of themselves. Konan might be one of the few he actually tolerated.

He made no vocal responses, only the silent demanding of her to say her piece and leave.

"You seem a bit annoyed."

His eyes narrowed, although most believed he could not have emotions, he still had his soul, no matter how cruel and dark it grew or how tight he locked it away, he still felt few emotions. However he knew Konan wasn't reading him, she had been digging like usual.

"I have seen things, you newest body is definitely different, isn't it?"

Finally, honey eyes looked over to her own amber ones, his tinkering stopping. She was powerful, he knew that, so was Pein, yet they would not have been going in such fast pace if it wasn't for his brains. They chose to ignore that, and Sasori could care less, he preferred to work in the shadows.

"What do you want." No question there.

"I am slightly worried about our advisor, and want to be sure that this newest project isn't going to be something the Akatsuki end up regretting."

Nothing was worried about her uncaring, cold tone. Sasori lip twitched down, as he turned his full attention to the older woman.

"The body I am building up is different, but it is sure to be more powerful when it comes to its full potential."

"This body seems more human than your current body, do you not think you are downgrading?"

A sharp glare made itself known on the young man's face, making him look older than he should be.

"Unfortunately I have told you the conditions of this body, and I hate to repeat myself. This body may be strong, yet it cannot grow stronger. It was a design flaw I realized too late."

He turned, going back to absentmindedly clicking pieces together.

"It may be a long while before I find a way to create a perfect body, but that is why I enjoy this game I play with fate and death. My art challenges them, and eventually will conquer them. It will be a long battle, yet it will be everlasting in the end."

Konan frowned at his art rant, she always hated when him and Deidara would go off on these pointless talks of art. Art was nothing in the face of God. She chose not comment to that, only humming at his comment.

"How is the girl?"

Sasori looked over to Konan. Ah, she hid it so well. He thought of exploiting it right there and then, yet he knew she would close herself off and freeze her heart up if he commented on her attachment to the newest pawn. He would let her nonexistent emotions grow before he tried to use it against her.

"She has been excelling in ways that have surprised me." He said uncaringly, looking back to his work.

"The little girl may be useful yet."

Konan turned around, her cloak billowing after her.

"I am not surprised. I saw her eyes that night I first saw her. She is everything we need to complete our mission." Sasori's hummed lazily at her comment, yet an annoying tick in his eyebrow let itself show.

"I wouldn't get my hopes up on the brat. She may make a fine tool one day, but I do not think she will ever be more than that."

Konan made no comment as she glided up the steps and out of his room. The puppet-boy acted like she was never there in the first place.

"You've had your genin team for almost five years now, Rokusho-san. It says here you aren't entering them in this chunin exam either. Why is that?"

Although the young woman was younger than him, she stood proudly behind a desk, sharp eyes staring at the man, attempting to dissect him. As Aoi bowed, he rolled his eyes.

"Because they stink still," he muttered under his breath before sending her a charming smirk.

"I just don't think they are ready, Sada-sama. I mean, Shigure-sama is known as Hanzo's grandson, you don't want him to make a fool out of himself."

Sada tapped her long, sharp nails onto the desk in front of her, raising an eyebrow at Aoi's excuse.

"Mhmm, well. I think you have grown content with the idea of having a team that does all the work for you. For all your skills, you still can be unbelievably lazy."

Aoi sneered, looking at a wall. The girl thought she was really all that, even though she was chosen as Hanzo's heir, she barely knew the man with all his walls and guards. Old man was growing senile and crazy at his age, while he dumped all the menial work onto his granddaughter.

"So, Rokusho-san, I am vetoing your rejection for this year's examines and sending your team anyways."

"If you haven't forgotten, Sada-sama, I was undercover in Konoha. They will recognize them, especially since the Morino guy always helps out in the exams."

"I know that, I didn't say you had to go there. Shigure will go in your place as leader, he's old enough and it isn't required for a sensei to join them."

Aoi shrugged, trying not to grumble.

"Alright, fine, send them. Hope they die, not."

His voice was strained, he tried not to show his anger over her overruling him. She smirked.

"Good to see there is no problem. Send them word immediately, they will be heading out in three days times."

Sakura was zipping her qipao shirt up when Sheru walked in. Her eyes widened in surprise and she sent a stray book flying for his head.

"What are you trying to hide? There's nothing to see." He said plainly, this caused another three books to come flying at him. He dodged them easily, his face not changing.

"We have a side mission in Konoha."

They were about to leave in just an hour to Konoha. It was rather exciting for Sakura, since she had not left Ame since she was eight years old.

She put her gloves on, hiding her discolored hands, and figured out what Sheru meant and turned around to face him. Their relationship had not changed much of the past four years. While when on missions they got along, at least they worked well together where they didn't get in each other's way, usually bickering would ensue shortly after being left alone together.

Their ideals were completely opposite, she believed in teamwork and helping people, he could care less of any of those two. Even though Sheru was usually quiet, it seemed he couldn't help but get Sakura riled up and angry. It usually ended with a hole in the wall.

So far, there hadn't been any side missions from Konan, and Sakura sometimes forgot that they were in fact on a whole different mission and not just a regular team of Ame.

It didn't help she didn't even know why Konan wanted her to be here, only that she wanted her to become strong. She hadn't heard from the lady since the note at the bunker, which only read to graduate that coming semester.

"What is it?" She asked curiously, maybe this would hint at what Konan wanted her to do.

"There's a boy in Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto. We are to observe him, watch for weakness, anything different about him. We must break into another area, but I will tell you more about that when we get to that."

He seemed so casual about it, it could've been a suicide mission and Sakura didn't think his tone would change.

Shrugging, she grabbed her bag, checking the mirror to make sure she had her outfit in place. She wore a simple white top with a blue stripe going down the middle, like most Ame-nin, except it wasn't a jumpsuit like how Aoi or Shigure wore it. It was sleeveless and high collared. She wore tight black biker shorts, which ended knee-high and went into mesh armor until her standard shinobi shoes.

It was definitely more efficient then the rags she had on when she first started out, a lot more durable also. It was a bit bland, but Sheru had commented that anything bright would be bright and un-shinobi like, especially in Ame where everything was blue, green or gray. She still wish she had gotten something bright, she couldn't help but be attracted to bright colors like a moth on a flame.

Her Ame-forehead protector was used as a headband, which Sheru had made another rude comment at, but she ignored him that time.

Her hair was brushing her shoulders, she liked to keep it trimmed now after trying to have long-hair for a short period. It didn't work out with the rain, it was either frizzy or tangled, and always a mess.

Sheru definitely had a simpler outfit, navy colored shirt with a mesh under shirt that was seen a bit, standard shinobi pants and a cloak that wrapped around him, fur at the edges. His outfit did not change much from a child.

"Well, do we have a description of him?"

"Blonde hair, whisker marks."

"Whisker marks?" She asked, he better not be some weirdo.

"Their birthmarks apparently."

"Oh."

"We should head out, Shigure will be meeting us at the gates."

She rolled her eyes at his dismissive tone, and they walked outside before taking off towards the gate where twenty other teams waited for them.

Speeding through the gothic, dark city Sakura glanced over at Sheru. It made her mad how attractive he had gotten in the past few years, while she still felt like the only thing that defined her as a girl was her pink hair.

Every time they went on missions, ladies would attempt to squeeze his cheeks or give him any type of affection that he usually was quick to avoid. It didn't matter if they were young or old, woman flocked to him and his undeniable good looks, while every time Sakura had tried to flirt with guys it ended up in a big fail.

His eyes caught her intense one, making him raise an eyebrow. Her cheeks grew hot, as she childishly stuck out her tongue and focused on looking forward.

Shigure's tall and lanky figure waited ahead, as he leaned against a take-out stand. He was still handsome, even with his scars and missing eye, it seemed to make him more roguish to girls. The fact he was Hanzo's grandson helped a bit.

Sakura could only huff in irritation as girls from other teams came to congratulate the two on getting entered into the chunin exams, conveniently forgetting they did in fact have a third teammate.

At least Sheru completely ignored girls, Shigure was disgustingly affectionate however. She sighed in relief as Shigure finally signaled for them to head out. With one last look at the dark city of Amegakure, she headed out to the awaiting Konoha.

 _Here we gooooooooo!_

 _Pops right into Chunin Exams, since I still believe this is the best place Sakura to be introduce to Konoha in a whole, including many members of it._

 _In many fics that have Sakura train/be somewhere else (Including my own), I always find that it's either exactly like Sakura was, but a lot weaker, or Hinata Hyuuga. Which I don't think really fits with the dynamic of the team. In the original team, Sasuke is smart, Sakura is super smart, Naruto is dumb. The only one that could probably replace her would be Ino, who was the top kid in the academy if I remembered correctly, but then that breaks up the dynamic trio of Ino-Shika-Cho. Hinata I don't believe is very smart, there is a reason why her father is so disappointed and why she is considered a bit of a failure to the clan, because she just isn't good (Not bashing on Hinata, just stating how I think it is). I feel like Hinata is the Neville Longbottom of Naruto, she isn't really to good at anything (Unless it's filler) until more towards the later parts of Shippuden. So this is how I'm going to kind of portray her, not necessarily weak, but just not confident in herself, which leads down to her not believing enough in her own strength._

 _Anyways, so that's that. Sai is the third teammate, because I image Danzo wants someone capable of making sure Sasuke or Naruto doesn't get in the wrong hands._

 _Then you have Sasori, and if you haven't guessed it yet, Sheru is Sasori, how are they connected? You'll find out more in detail in later chapters. Aoi is most likely not going to show up more, maybe a few more scenes but he's kind of down his part now._

 _Anyways, hope you like it!_

 _~Apotheosis_


	10. Part II: Alley Way Meetings

The pink-haired girl stood in the stream, water rushing passed her thighs in a soothing sensation. Only dressed in some bandages covering her upper body and simple cotton underwear, she was quick to wash herself of the dirt and grim of a day's worth of travelling. She had told the boys she was going to bathe, and she figured they were smart enough to get the idea she didn't want to be bothered.

That was until she turned around to find a very bare Sheru a few meters away from her taking his pants off and effectively mooning her.

"Pervert!" She screamed, picking up a fairly large rock and chucking it towards him. His eyes widened and he stumbled head first into the water to dodge the assault.

"Stupid girl!" He seethed as his head popped up, eyes dangerously narrowed, only to find Sakura turned around and covering her eyes from seeing his bare body.

"You're the one that followed me and was stripping like some kind of exhibitionist!"

Sheru sneered at her words, she was such a whiner sometimes.

"I came here because like you, I need to wash the dirt that has gathered in the most undesirable places and the sweat that has worked up since being in this unforgivingly humid place. I would like to do it before the sun goes down, and knowing the nature of frivolous little girls, like yourself, it would be closer to midnight when you would be done."

He bit out, Sakura whipped around, pointing a finger at him. Luckily, he still sat in the water, only his knees showing as he splashed water into his face.

Then she saw it, a red tattoo on his heart, it looked like a scorpion. Odd, scorpions weren't native to Ame.

"Look who's staring now." His cold voice pointed out, pushing his wet hair back to give her a leveled stare.

She gaped slightly, trying to find words to explain she was definitely not staring 'staring' at him, she was simply observing a tattoo. Yet her hormones suddenly noticed how attractive he was with the water dripping down his face and his hair pushed back. Her cheeks heated up and before a snarky reply could make itself known through her mouth, another voice spoke up behind her.

"You two are such loud brats. Sheru is right though, Sakura, you're practically a boy at your age, you have nothing to show."

Whipping around again, she saw Shigure, laying in the water, only his head popping up.

"Y-You jerks!"

She yelled at them, her face turning an interesting shade of red. She sank into the water, letting it sink up over her nose as she glared straight ahead, thinking about planning murder and the best way to hide a body.

Besides the bathing fiasco, Sakura was fascinated with the Land of Fire. It was so bright and green, while the sun shined all the time practically, only a few clouds to gaze up at.

It was noon when the three walked up to Konoha's gates, greeted by a group of chunin. They checked over their passports, seeing it as all good, they waved them in, giving them a map where their inn would be.

Although Shigure and Sheru didn't seem to appreciate the new atmosphere, Sakura couldn't get enough of it. The town was bustling with noise and people, Ame didn't have many people out and about because of the cruddy weather. She smiled brightly at all the carts that littered store fronts, selling all kind of items from food to knick-knacks. One store got her full attention however. Its name was simply Himitsu, letting her know it was in fact a ninja wear store.

In the front window held a bright red kimono, it was short, but with ninja you shouldn't wear long dresses unless you trained to fight in them. It was perfect, the color caught her eye and she could feel her hand go to her money pouch.

"No." Sheru's sharp voice cut in, while Shigure grabbed her shoulder and dragged her away.

"This is no time for window shopping, let's find our hotel and get settled in." Shigure grumbled, his eyes wandering around the bright hidden village. If he was amazed or impressed, he didn't show it.

They found their inn easy enough, other Rain genin stood around, some with their sensei waiting for a room key. Eventually, the manager gave them two room keys.

"Yes, I finally get my own room," Sakura fist-pumped. Shigure laughed a bit darkly.

"Uh-huh, yeah no. You are staying with Sheru, you two are still children, I'm an adult, I get the one bed room."

It seemed Sheru didn't care either way as he got the two bed hotel key and walked off to find it. Sakura and Shigure glared at each other, before she finally huffed and looked away.

"Fine, but next time, my turn."

"Sure thing." He added sarcastically as he headed to his room next to hers and Sheru's. She sighed, making her way into the shared room where Sheru already sat on his designated bed with his shoes off and a scroll in hand.

He could be such an old man at times.

"You should go find that Uzumaki brat."

He finally spoke up, not even looking at her.

"You're not going to come with me?"

"I don't like kids."

"You are pretty much a kid."

"I still don't like them."

Sakura's fist clenched as she resisted the urge to punch his arrogant face. She composed herself, not saying another word to her teammate as she walked out the door.

Exiting into the street, she looked around. She didn't even know where to start. Sighing, she began to walk around.

She could really use Shigure's ability to sniff out a dango house right about now.

Walking around was beginning to tire her, and she really just wanted to go relax at the inn. Just as she was about to turn around, she found herself looking at a blonde walking towards her.

With whisker marks.

How lucky she was. He seemed to see her looking at him, and started blushing as he walked closer, stumbling a bit from her unnerving stare.

"Um, do I know you?" He asked, she sure did look familiar to him, he just couldn't place it her face. She smiled at him and shook her head.

"No, I'm Sakura!" Now that really rang a bell, however the boy was grabbing for sticks in his mind. He grinned, he shouldn't be thinking so hard with such a cute girl talking to him.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, believe it!"

Then a glint of metal made him look at the girl's headband- a ninja forehead protector. However it didn't have the leaf insignia engraved into it, it was four straight lines.

"Uh, what's wrong with your headband?"

She touched it at the mention of it. What was wrong with it? Before she could ask, a child ran between them and tackled Naruto down.

"Naruto-nii-san! Help me, a man with makeup on is trying to attack me!"

"Konohamaru- not right now!"

He said, trying to use his eyes to look at Sakura, as if trying to tell Konohamaru he was busy. Konohamaru looked a bit dumbly up at Sakura, looking at her with a scrunched face.

"Who's this hag?"

A vein popped out of her forehead as she was about to unleash hell on the young boy, well at least until another boy came into the picture and grabbed the kid up by the collar.

This must be the makeup man the child was talking about. He was a bit taller than herself, with a bit weird cat-eared black suit on and suna forehead protector sewed into the front.

"There you are, ya little brat."

The unnamed boy growled out threatening.

"Hey put Konohamaru down or else!"

A glare was sent Naruto's way.

"Or else what? This brat drew on my most prized possessions."

She silently wondered what the possession was. Naruto was clenching his fist tightly, thinking of a plan to rescue the kid, Konohamaru. He seemed nervous, which made sense, the Suna kid was pretty intimidating.

"Why don't we all play nice now," Sakura tried, trying to calm out the tension. It would do no good to start an all-out brawl between two genin. If she assumed correctly, and usually she did, that would lead a domino effect to the already rivalling villages, and more genin would 'defend their honor' by starting more fights.

Then she noticed it. She looked up and spotted a boy in a tree. He flicked something out of his hand, before catching her eyes. If he was surprised she noticed him, he didn't show it.

The item he flicked, a small rock, landed hard and precise on the Suna-boys hand, causing him to yelp and drop Konohamaru. The kid was quick to scramble to safety behind Naruto.

"What the-"

"Sasuke!" Naruto grounded out in an angry tone.

"Kankuro!" A girl, older than them, came running up, looking royally pissed off.

"Why'd you ditch me?" She seethed out, glaring at Kankuro. Before he could answer, a new voice made an appearance. It shocked Sakura as the air became full of malice and killer intent in only a millisecond.

"You two, just shut up."

Her eyes narrowed as she took a defensive stance and looked up once again. Sasuke, who was still in his position in his tree, sensed the new comer also and looked somewhat surprised. On the opposite side of the tree, a boy, no older than them, stood upside down on the branch, with bloody red hair which reminded her of Sheru.

However, this boy managed to send shiver down her spine. She was a trained ninja, and at times she may not act like one, but she was surprisingly not easy to scare anymore, especially after encountering many of Ame's native species, most of them either poisonous, venomous, or just bacteria infested.

Yet, he scared her, whether it was the dead look in his eye or just how intense his aura was, she didn't know. Sasuke jumped down, landing next to Naruto to stare at the boy.

"O-oh Gaara, didn't know you were out and about-"Kankuro said sheepishly, the once pretty menacing boy turned into a frightened kitten under the younger nin's stare.

"Kankuro, you are a disgrace to our village and a disgrace of a brother."

His tone was sharp, and she could see it cut through Kankuro visibly. The boy backed up, waving his hands in front of him nervously.

"We were just playing, Gaara. Getting to know the locals, right sis?"

Apparently they were all siblings, however Sakura was not paying attention to that, more on the young suna-nin who seemed to be able to attack at a pin drop.

"Y-Yeah." The girl's voice a bit stronger, but Sakura still felt fear from her. Why were they so scared of their own, by the looks of it, younger brother?

The boy started turning into sand, a pretty advance trick for a young genin. He reformed right in front of them, however his back was turned to them and facing his siblings.

"Next time this happens, I'll kill you."

It was a pretty serious threat for something so small. She didn't like bullies as much as the next guy, but she never felt the need to kill them. Something was off about this boy, and her mind was working on why he was so violent and so obviously strong. She was no means a chakra sensor, yet his chakra radiated off him in massive waves, he didn't even try to hide it.

"Y-Yes, Gaara." Kankuro muttered out, looking to the ground and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Let's get back to the hotel, boys." The older sister's voice was quiet, a bit stronger but subdued by Gaara's presence.

"Wait! What is foreign-nin doing in the village anyways?"

Naruto yelled out accusingly, pointing his finger at the trio. Sakura sent a glare to the boy, did he want them to get killed by a psycho genin?

"Shut up."

"Dobe, be quiet." They both whisper scolded at the same time. That little moment made them look at each other. He was quite handsome with dark mysterious looks, but Sakura managed to tone down the blush to a minimum. It was quiet easy to do when Gaara's stare came onto them.

Naruto turned a bit red at the double scolding, but held his ground, staring defiantly at the Sand trio.

"We have passports," The girl said smartly, bringing her own up, showing her name was Temari.

"We're here for the Chunin Exams, I assume you guys are going to be in it to?" She continued, eyeing Sasuke in an appreciating way, apparently she had come to the same conclusion that Sakura did, except she had no problem showing her interest.

"Yes," Sakura said, but looking at the two Konoha genin, it seemed they were lost.

"The chunin exams, being held in Konoha this year? Ring a bell?" She tried, this only made Sasuke glare at not knowing what was going on and Naruto to stand there and look really confused.

"Did Scarecrow Sensei not give you the entry forms?"

Great, another person. Sakura looked behind her and saw a smiling boy walking towards them. His smile was off, somewhat fake. It was definitely odd for a young boy not to have a genuine smile, and a bit creepy. He was very pale, somewhat the same features of the Sasuke boy, dark hair and matching eyes. She wondered briefly if they were related.

"You knew about this Sai?!"

Naruto shouted out in surprise, only earning him a fake smile in return. This was turning into a very odd meet up.

"Sure I did, dickless," he simply stated, earning a surprised look from Sakura at his vulgar language and more cursing from Naruto's side.

"We will see you there then." Temari called out, her and Kankuro walking off. However Gaara stayed put, staring at Sasuke in an intense way.

"What's your name." It wasn't a question, but a demand. Sasuke glared at the boy, looking him up and down trying to measure him up.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

Gaara grunted.

"Gaara. I look forward to meeting someone with the same eyes on the battlefield."

She didn't know if that was a promise or a threat, but Sasuke only smirked at the boy, seemingly accepting the challenge. Boys were really weird sometimes.

"Hey don't you want to know my name?" Naruto again shouted and Sakura whacked him on the head. He whined and Sakura's eyes widened in surprise. She was so used to being around her team who she constantly tried (Sometimes succeeded) to hit, that she had instinctively hit Naruto for being loud.

"S-Sorry, I'm used to my teammates." She stuttered out, Naruto looked at her for a while, before shrugging it off with a grin. As soon as he opened his mouth to speak, Sai spoke up.

"Hello ugly girl, I am Sai."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched. Her ego was really taking a real beating ever since she stepped out of Ame. She turned around looking at Sai with a sickly sweet smile.

His two teammates and the young boy Konohamaru backed up, looking on in morbid curiosity seeing what the somewhat weak looking girl would do.

She held out her left hand, offering to shake it with Sai. Sai seemed surprise, but somewhat happily took the girls hand.

"Hello Sai, I'm Sakura and I would like you to meet me best friend."

Sai blinked in a confused at her words, looking at her with a tilted head. It was almost cute. His eyes widened when her hand clenched his harder and harder, almost like she was going to break it. Then her fist came up, and him being effectively trapped in her death grip he wasn't able to dodge. Her fist came down in what seemed like a normal girl punch, but to the boy's surprise, Sai flew back a few meters.

A groan came from Sai and Sakura turned around looking at the unharmed boys, who were now looking at her akin to something to terror, Sasuke hid it a bit better than the two more obvious boys. Her face had relaxed and she now wore a genuine smile.

"Pleasure to meet you, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, brat." She looked darkly down at Konohamaru, as if warning him next time she wouldn't be so kind. He gulped and shook, grabbing Naruto's pant leg.

"Now, I'm going to try to repair my shattered ego, ja ne!"

With an overly happy voice she walked down the street, walking right over Sai without a thought.

"I think I'm in love." Naruto whispered, a blush dusting his cheeks, while Sasuke sent him a weird look.

Sai finally sat his upper body up, his cheek already growing an enormous size and his nose bleeding profusely.

"What did I do?"

His voice came out staggered as his unfocused eyes looked around, trying to get his bearings.

"Interesting." Sasuke commented, before pivoting and walking away.


End file.
